What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files which are placed on your PC, mobile device or tablet whenever you visit a website.

We use cookies for many different purposes, like helping you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences and generally improving your browsing experience. They can also help ensure that ads you see online are more relevant to you and your interests. Some of the functions that cookies perform can also be achieved using alternative technology hence we use the term 'Cookies and Similar Technologies ' in this notice.

We will deploy these technologies to provide an online service more suited to the device you are connecting with, to assess the performance of our site, and to detect and prevent fraud. When you visit our website from any device we collect information about your use of this site, such as information about the device or browser you use to access the site, the way you interact with this site, your general location and the IP address your device uses. You may not be able to initiate or complete some activities within our secure online services unless these Cookies and Similar Technologies are installed.

Certain Cookies and Similar Technologies contain personal information – for example, if you click to "remember me" when logging in to a website or app, a cookie will store your username and preferences.

The Cookies and Similar Technologies American Express uses, and their purposes

1. Essential Cookies and Similar Technologies

These Cookies and Similar Technologies are vital to the basic performance of the American Express website; they enable critical authentication and validation, session management, and fraud prevention.

Examples: Cookies and Similar Technologies that :-


• allow us to confirm that you have successfully logged in.
• allow you to navigate efficiently between pages.



2. Functionality Cookies and Similar Technologies

These Cookies and Similar Technologies provide you with additional functionality and enable us to remember the settings that you may have previously applied, such as language preference and font size.

Examples: Cookies and Similar Technologies that :-


• allow us to remember what preferences you may have set
• allow us to remember your login details, like your user ID



3. Performance Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use these Cookies and Similar Technologies to optimise the experience on the American Express website and understand what content visitors might be more interested in. They collect data such as volume of visitors, clicks and conversions; they are used at an aggregate level and combined with other non-personal data, to track the success of our products' campaigns. This data is not available at an individual visitor level as these cookies do not collect personal data.

The implementation of performance Cookies and Similar Technologies does not allow Amex to collect any users' activity data beyond American Express' own websites.

Examples: Cookies and Similar Technologies that :-


• allow us to understand which browser visitors use and the number of new visitors to our website
• allow us to test different versions of the same page, so we can provide the best customer experience.



4. American Express Marketing Cookies and Similar Technologies


These Cookies and Similar Technologies are placed by American Express to help us ensure that the marketing messages you receive on our website are relevant to you and your interests.

Examples: Cookies and Similar Technologies that :-


• when used in conjunction with other data we hold about you, such as data about how you use your card, allow us to recognise you when you are logged in and tailor our online marketing and other messages to you



5. Third Party Marketing Cookies and Similar Technologies & Social Advertising

American Express has relationships with a number of third-party advertising networks and social media partners (we call these Advertising Partners) that use Cookies & Similar Technologies for marketing purposes. We may use an Advertising Partner to serve you with targeted advertising while you are on a third party website. We only work with Advertising Partners who adhere to industry standards and who provide you with the ability to 'opt-out' of targeted advertising. For example, as part of our relationship with our Advertising Partner BlueKai, you will see American Express Ads across the BlueKai network which covers multiple websites and services. Click here to learn more about BlueKai and your choices.

As you might be aware, various social media platforms also use information they collect about you to serve you with advertising while you're using their platform (for example, social networks present users with advertising using 'social context'). We participate in these types of programs with our social media partners. We encourage you to learn more about advertising on the Social Network and the choices you have by referring to their privacy statement and opt out options.

Managing your Cookie and Similar Technologies preferences on the American Express website

If you'd prefer to restrict, block or delete Cookies and Similar Technologies from www.americanexpress.com or any other website, you can use your browser to do this. Each browser is different and your browser 'Help' function will show you how to do this. Please note that if you choose to disable essential, functionality and performance cookies, it will affect how the American Express website works. For example, while you will still be able to view the public website, you won't be able to log on to our secure journey, check your account balances, or make payments.

Use of other websites

When you use links to other websites which we provide to you, we recommend that you read the privacy and Cookies and Similar Technologies policies on those websites.

Please note that any choice about Cookies and Similar Technologies that you may have provided on an American Express site will not be honored on non-American Express websites.

Cookies and Similar Technologies as part of e-mails

We use Cookies and Similar Technologies to understand track whether emails we send to you are opened or not and which links or URLs you might click on within those emails. We do this to determine the effectiveness of our communications and to help us better tailor emails and online advertising we may serve you in the future.

You can disable Cookie and Similar Technologies for emails by changing your device or email program settings (generally, you can do this by turning off 'auto image loading').