American Express
Email alertsAmex email alerts live in your Online Account, not the app.
Push notifications come from the Amex App; email and SMS alerts come from your Online Account. They are separate systems — and the menu differs by region.
The feature is called
Card Alerts
You can switch per-transaction email alerts on yourself, from online banking or the app.
By Rohtash Singh and Taniya Das, co-founders of Numero
American Express separates its notification channels more strictly than most issuers. Push notifications come from the Amex App, while SMS and email Card Alerts are configured in your Online Account. They are genuinely independent, so a cardmember who installed the app and allowed notifications has not enabled email alerts at all. That is the single most common misunderstanding here.
The second thing to know is that Amex does not use one menu worldwide. Its UK and Australian help pages document different paths to the same feature, and Amex savings accounts in the US are different again. Following instructions written for the wrong region is a reliable way to conclude the setting does not exist.
Alert categories cover payment alerts, spending alerts and fraud protection alerts.
Step by step
What to do, in order.
AAmex UK — Online Services
01
Log in to Online Services
Not the app. Push notifications are the app's domain; email and SMS alerts live in your Online Account.
02
Select Account Management from the navigation bar
Amex UK's documented path starts from the top navigation bar.
03
Click Alerts & Preferences, then Manage Card Alerts
This is where payment alerts, spending alerts and fraud protection alerts are updated.
BAmex Australia — Online Account
01
Log in to your Online Account and go to Account Management
Australia uses a different submenu name from the UK, which is why one set of instructions does not fit both.
02
Select Alerts, Communications & Privacy, then Card Alerts
Note the menu name — ‘Alerts, Communications & Privacy’ rather than the UK's ‘Alerts & Preferences’.
03
Tick or untick the boxes beside your card, and choose email or SMS
The checkbox is per alert and per card, so ticking one row does not tick the rest.
04
For push notifications, use the Amex App instead
In the app: Account, then select your card in Manage Card, then Notifications under Preferences, then set each alert on or off. This does not affect your email alerts.
CAmex US — savings accounts
01
Log in and click the Account Services tab
Amex savings accounts — High Yield Savings and CDs — use a different path from card accounts.
02
Select Alerts and Communications, then Manage Alerts
Amex's documented wording for savings accounts.
03
Click the Email check box next to each alert option
The checkbox sits towards the right of the page, and is per alert rather than a single global switch.
04
Confirm with Save Settings at the bottom of the page
Changes are not applied until you save.
Card Alerts
Alert | SMS | Push | |
|---|---|---|---|
Spending alert | selected | not selected | not selected |
Payment alert | selected | not selected | not selected |
Fraud protection alert | selected | selected | not selected |
Statement available | selected | not selected | not selected |
The Email box is per alert and per card — ticking one row does not tick the rest.
Worth knowing
The things that catch American Express customers out.
Push notifications from the Amex App and email or SMS Card Alerts from your Online Account are separate systems. Enabling one does nothing for the other.
The menu name differs by region: Amex UK documents ‘Alerts & Preferences’, Amex Australia documents ‘Alerts, Communications & Privacy’.
Card accounts and Amex savings accounts use different paths again, so instructions for one will not match the other.
The email checkbox is per alert row, not a single global setting — it is easy to tick one and assume the rest followed.
Check your contact details are correct in your Card Profile first, or correctly configured alerts still go nowhere.
Menus move. If this does not match what you see:
American Express’s own page on thisThen Numero turns those alerts into a record.
Once American Express is emailing you reliably, Numero reads what you authorize in Gmail or Outlook and organizes it — merchants normalized, subscriptions detected, refunds tracked to completion. It never asks for your American Express login, card number, or OTP, and there is nowhere in the product to enter them.
Connect an inboxQuestions
American Express alerts, answered
I get Amex app notifications but no emails. Why?
Because they are separate systems. Amex sends push notifications from the App, while SMS and email Card Alerts are managed from your Online Account. Allowing app notifications does not enable email alerts — you have to set those up separately in your Online Account.
Why do Amex instructions I find online not match my account?
Almost certainly a region mismatch. Amex UK documents Account Management, then Alerts & Preferences, then Manage Card Alerts. Amex Australia documents Account Management, then Alerts, Communications & Privacy, then Card Alerts. US savings accounts use Account Services, then Alerts and Communications, then Manage Alerts. Same feature, three different menus.
Can I stop Amex fraud alert emails?
Amex states that for your security you cannot unenrol from fraud alert emails, though you can choose not to receive them by text. That is a deliberate constraint rather than a setting you have failed to find.