How do I talk to a live human at American Express?
A:When asked "How can I help you," say "Representative" (you will be asked twice). Say "Representative" again. Then press 0. Next, press #. When asked for "Account Number," press 0.Our free phone can also navigate phone menus to get a live human at American Express for you.
Q:
Does American Express offer 24 hour customer service?
A:Yes! This call center operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.The least busy day is Sunday, and the most busy day is Friday.Schedule a call when it's convenient for you.
Q:
How long will I wait on hold?
A:The average hold time is 1 minute and 40 seconds.The longest hold times are on Monday, and the shortest are on Sunday.You can skip the hold time for free.
Toll-free · 24 hours, 7 days · Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages OR state your card number and hold for a representative. · Please tell me in a few words how I can help you. (Respond to the question.) · Free tools available: Talk for me, Skip the wait, Schedule my call
Toll-free · 24 hours, 7 days · Use this number for getting help with American Express gift cards · Gift Card Customer Service Line - Please enter your 15-digit card number. · Free tools available: Talk for me, Skip the wait, Schedule my call
Toll-free · Mon-Fri 8am-8pm EST · Use this number for help with Merchant Services · Merchant Services Line - Please tell me why you are calling today. (Respond to the question.) · Free tools available: Talk for me, Skip the wait, Schedule my call
How do I get through the phone menu to a live person?
Consider using our free service that calls and talks to customer service for you, then sends you a report. Or use our free service that waits on hold and tells you when a human rep is on the line. But if those options don't appeal to you, our team has also documented the phone menu for American Express below.
Our AI powered phone can dial, navigate the phone menu, wait on hold, and even talk to customer service for you, for free. You don't even need to learn about the path through the various phone options.
That same, free GetHuman Phone can call and navigate the menus and wait on hold for you, but you can opt to do all the talking. We notify you when a rep is on the line and ready to talk, so no need to worry about changing menu options and weaving your way through the maze.
Of course, we completely understand if you prefer to do all the dialing, waiting, and talking yourself. All of these free tools are optional.
GetHuman researchers routinely call this American Express phone number to document the phone system.
Here is how our research team describes the way the American Express phone system greets you: How can I help you today? (Respond to the question.)
Here is our latest tip for weaving through the phone menu to get to a real person the fastest:When asked "How can I help you," say "Representative" (you will be asked twice). Say "Representative" again. Then press 0. Next, press #. When asked for "Account Number," press 0.
Below are some clips we've found from American Express's phone menus and tips that help give an idea of what you will encounter when you call. We've highlighted why they are important as well:
They may ask your reason for calling (instead of a menu)
"Welcome to American Express. This call may be recorded, monitored, and analyzed for compliance and to improve our systems.
How can I help you today?"
Excerpt from a call with American Express
Saturday, June 8, 2024 3:17 AM
They may ask you to enter information with the dial pad
"Hear you. Please enter the last four digits of your Social Security number."
Excerpt from a call with American Express
Thursday, July 17, 2025 12:45 AM
They may ask you to say or enter information
"Welcome to American Express.
This call may be recorded, monitored, and analyzed for compliance.
And to improve our systems. Now tell me your fifteen digit card number or your full Social Security number.
Let's try something different. I'm going to ask you some additional information.
Say or enter the last four digits of your Social Security number."
Excerpt from a call with American Express
Thursday, July 17, 2025 12:45 AM
They may need to look up your account
"If you need more time to find this information, say hold on, and I'll wait for you.
Let's look up your account a different way. Now tell me your fifteen digit card number or your full Social Security number."
Excerpt from a call with American Express
Tuesday, May 20, 2025 5:20 PM
The first phone menu
"Welcome to American Express. This call may be recorded, monitored, and analyzed for compliance.
And to improve our systems.
How can I help you today?
I didn't hear you. Please tell me in a few words how I can help you.
You can say here account balance, payments, question of charge, here recent transactions, or more options.
I didn't hear you. You can say hear account balance or press one.
Payments or press two, question a charge or press three, hear recent transactions or press four, more options or press five,."
Excerpt from a call with American Express
Sunday, May 12, 2024 7:10 PM
What are the hours and when should I call?
American Express operates the call center for this 800-528-4800 phone number 24 hours, 7 days.The short answer is that you should call on a Sunday.This observation and the following section are based on analysis of a sample set of 2,312 calls made in the last 90 days using our free, web-based phone (see above).
Call when they- and you- are open
When you use our free AI-powered phone to call and talk, wait on hold, or navigate for you, you can also schedule the call with American Express at a time when they are open and when it works for you. We will confirm you are ready before placing the call, just in case. That means you can "set it and forget it" ahead of time.
An important note: busy times vs hold times vs best time to call
When we refer to busy or less busy times, we are talking about the volume of calls. The busiest times are when the most people are calling this American Express phone number (least busy times have fewer people calling). This high call volume does not necessarily mean that you will have a long hold time when you call. Companies like American Express staff their call centers differently based on the time of day and day of the week, so you may experience a shorter wait on hold at the busiest of times. When we refer to the best time to call, we are referring to the optimal combination of lower call volume and shorter wait times.
The least busy time to call
The least busy day to call American Express is Sunday.The most busy day to call is Friday, which averages 87% more phone calls by comparison.Again, this is based on a sample of 2,312 calls made with our AI-powered, web-based phone in the last 90 days.
Sun
Quietest
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Busiest
Sat
The shortest wait on hold
We measured the shortest hold times to be on Sunday.The longest wait in the queue on average occurs on Monday, which is 341% longer than the minimum.As you can see, there is more fluctuation in hold time over the course of the week than there is in call volume.
In summation, the best day to call American Express is Sunday.In this case, it's a no-brainer. Sunday is not only the least busy day for calling this American Express number, but it is also the day with the shortest hold times.
I'm thinking about opening up a new credit card account because I want to get one that offers great reward points. I've spent a lot of time building my credit up, and now I'm in a position where I should be able to apply for most credit cards. That means that I can choose a card that offers great reward perks, and I can't think of a better place to start than with American Express. Not only does it have a nice ring, but they offer cashback and travel reward perks that I would love to start earning.
Before doing anything though, I need to talk to someone about the reward program and start the application process. I'm not so sure about just signing up online, so it made sense to just call the credit card company directly. Of course, there are probably millions of people with American Express accounts so I was prepared to wait a bit to talk to someone. Between billing issues and fraud issues, there are plenty of reasons why there may be an extended wait to actually talk to a customer service agent.
When I called, an automated voice greeted me with, "Welcome to American Express. How can I help you today?" I replied that I needed to, “Talk to someone about a card," and the recording said back, "That’s new card question, is that right? Yes or No?"
After I responded "yes," I then gave me a long list of options which included, "Okay, New card. If you calling to replace a lost or stolen card, say replace. To confirm a call you have already received, say confirm. To apply for a new American Express account, say apply. To check the status of an application, say status. To add a person to a card, say add a person."
I responded back that I wanted to apply for a card and the automated assistant asked, "Will this new card be for personal or business use?" After saying personal use, it said, "Okay please wait while I connect you to a representative." This part was kind of funny because there was a long message that I had to sit through that said they apologized it may take longer to talk to an agent than normal so I could go online and use their live chat if I wanted. However, once that message was over, a different voice said the wait time was two minutes. Obviously, I just waited the two minutes of elevator music and then I was contacted by an agent. It really was pretty quick and the agent helped walk me through the rewards and the application process so it was worth my time.
Adam has been tirelessly trying to help customers find the best tips and tricks to get through phone trees and writing many guides for prickly customer service problems. He's been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Inside Edition and Bloomberg.
Why Customers Call American Express
If you have time to do a bit of reading before you call American Express, we recommend you read over some of our problem-specific articles.
Click the link above to get answers to just about any American Express customer service question, including step by step guides for the most complex issues. You can also detail a new issue and get answers instantly.
Below is a sample of recent calls to American Express, and their purpose. Are any of these similar to the reason you are trying to call?
Travel notification: "Notifying American Express of travel."
- From a call lasting 3m 40s , Jul 17, 2025 9:28 PM
Follow up on application: "I just need to get it started."
- From a call lasting 11m 52s , Jul 3, 2025 12:03 PM
Activate a card: "I was trying to activate my card."
- From a call lasting 8m 43s , Jul 3, 2025 12:21 AM
Lost American Express card: "Well, so I bust my wallet and my American Express card."
- From a call lasting 8m 48s , Jun 26, 2025 7:07 PM
Information about why customers call American Express is extracted from issues that customers have reported to GetHuman.
American Express, like many companies, provides customer service on the X platform (formerly Twitter). While it rarely entails live dialogue with a customer service rep, this channel can yield rapid response times and can be a useful option if you have an X/Twitter account.
American Express Customer Service on Facebook / Messenger
Some customer service teams, like that of American Express, accept inquiries through Facebook Messenger. This is a good option if you have a Facebook account, and you may even be able to converse live with an agent this way.
As a last, sometimes only, resort- American Express customer service can be accessed through their website. This can entail digging through help articles before finding a form and "being allowed" to submit a problem to their team, and rarely leads to a real-time conversation, which is why GetHuman does not recommend this unless it's the only way.
Conclusion and closing notes
This is American Express's best phone number, the real-time current wait on hold and tools for skipping right through those phone lines to get right to a American Express agent. This phone number is American Express's best phone number because 1,620 customers like you used this contact information over the last 18 months and gave us feedback. Common problems addressed by the customer care unit that answers calls to 800-528-4800 include Cancel Account, Lost Card, Account Restricted, Card Declined, Update Account Info and other customer service issues. Rather than trying to call American Express first, consider describing your issue first; from that we may be able to recommend an optimal way to contact them via phone or twitter or facebook or web. In total, American Express has 4 phone numbers. It's not always clear what is the best way to talk to American Express representatives, so we started compiling this information built from suggestions from the customer community. Please keep sharing your experiences so we can continue to improve this free resource.
GetHuman does not provide call center services or customer support operations for American Express. The two organizations are not related. GetHuman builds free tools and shares information to help customers of companies like American Express. For large companies that includes tools such as our GetHuman Phone, which allows you to call a company but skip the part where you wait on the line to get a live human rep. We continue to work on these tools to help customers like you (and ourselves!) navigate the messy phone menus, hold times, and confusion with customer service. As long as you keep sharing it with your friends and loved ones, we'll keep doing it.
