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Guide · Export CSV · American Express

Export an American Express CSV — six statements, no Plaid.

American Express is one of the better US issuers for self-serve transaction export. There's a working CSV download on the desktop site, you can pick a custom date range up to your last six billing periods, and the file format is consistent across personal cards. If you're moving off Mint or just spinning up a new budget app, this is one of the painless ones. Note up front: AmEx is credit-card-only here — there's no checking-account flow to worry about.

Step-by-step: export from American Express

  1. Sign in at americanexpress.com on a desktop browser. The mobile app shows your activity but doesn't expose the download path.
  2. From the top navigation, open Account Services → Statements & Activity (sometimes labelled "Activity & Statements" depending on which card product you're in).
  3. On the Statements & Activity page, find the date selector. Choose a specific statement period (going back ~6 months / statements) or click Custom Date Range and enter a Start Date and End Date.
  4. Click Search. AmEx loads the matching transactions in the page below the filter.
  5. Click the download icon (small downward arrow, top-right of the activity table). A dialog opens.
  6. Select CSV as the file format. Check the box to Include all additional transaction details — without this, the export drops fields like Reference, Category, and Card Member.
  7. Click Download. The file lands in your downloads folder.

What you'll get

  • Format: CSV with columns including Date, Description, Card Member, Account # (last four digits), Amount, and (with details on) Reference, Category, Address, City/State, Zip Code, Country.
  • Date range: Custom range up to your most recent ~6 billing periods. AmEx exposes "the past two years of transactions" for personal cards but downloads cap at six statements at a time — split your request if you need more.
  • Sign convention: Charges are positive, payments and credits to the card are negative.
  • Business accounts: Each export caps at 2,000 transactions. Filter or shorten the date range if you hit that ceiling.

Importing into Arden

Drop the file onto /import. Arden detects the column order, recognizes the AmEx-specific Card Member and Reference columns and ignores them, and maps Amountcorrectly without a sign flip. The first time you tag "WHOLE FOODS" as Groceries, every subsequent Whole Foods charge lands in Groceries automatically. No bank login required.

Quirks specific to American Express

  • Only six months / statements in one go. This is the tightest export window of any major US issuer. Plan to run the export quarterly if you want full year coverage without gaps.
  • The "Include all additional transaction details" checkbox is off by default. Leave it off and your CSV drops the merchant address, city, and reference number — which are useful for disambiguating payees like "PAYPAL".
  • Business and personal cards live in different portals. If you have both, sign in to each separately — there's no unified export across products.
  • Pending charges aren't in the export. AmEx only writes posted transactions to the CSV. New charges show in the UI but appear in the download a day or two later.

FAQ

  • Can I export more than six months at once?

    Not in one download. AmEx caps the custom date range to roughly the last six billing periods. For older history, run the export across multiple windows.

  • Does AmEx offer QFX or OFX?

    Yes. The same download dialog has Quicken (QFX) and QuickBooks (QBO) options. Arden only ingests CSV — pick CSV.

  • Are AmEx Bluebird or Serve transactions in the same export?

    No. Those products use a separate portal. The download path above only covers personal and small-business charge / credit cards.

Exporting from other banks?

Or just drop any CSV, XLSX, OFX, or QFX onto /import and Arden handles the rest.