How to turn on purchase alerts at American Express

Find Account Alerts

1. Sign in at americanexpress.com.
2. Click Account Services in the bar under the American Express logo. You can also open Menu at the top left and choose Account Services under Manage Your Account.
3. Choose Alerts and Communications.
4. Choose Account Alerts.

The alerts apply to the card shown at the top of the page. If you have more than one card, switch to each one with the card menu there and set it up too.

Turn on Large Purchase

1. Scroll down to Large Purchase, which American Express describes as “Get an alert when you make a purchase that exceeds an amount you choose.”
2. Tick Email.
3. Set the amount to $1, the lowest American Express allows.
4. Click Save Settings at the bottom of the page.

The alert is for purchases that exceed the amount, so at $1 a purchase of $1.00 or less won't send one. A higher amount means smaller purchases, like coffee or parking, won't be reported either.

The alerts go to the email address shown at the top of Account Alerts. To use a different Gmail address, click Edit Email next to it.

Two nearby alerts sound similar but won't report every purchase. Spend Tracking alerts you when your spending in a billing period reaches an amount you choose, and Card Not Present covers only purchases made online or by phone.

Send the alerts to a Gmail label

A Gmail filter keeps the alerts out of your inbox and collects them in one place:

1. In Gmail on a computer, click Show search options in the search bar.
2. In the From field, enter AmericanExpress@welcome.americanexpress.com, the address American Express sends Large Purchase alerts from. It looks like a marketing address, but it's the one on the alerts. If yours come from a different address, use that one.
3. Click Create filter.
4. Select Skip the Inbox (Archive it) and Apply the label, and choose or create a label such as Expenses.
5. Select Also apply filter to matching conversations so alerts already in your mailbox get the label too.
6. Click Create filter.

Other American Express emails can come from the same address, so the label may collect a few that aren't purchases. If you'd like to keep those in your inbox, you can also enter the alerts' subject, Large Purchase Approved, in the Subject field. This step is optional if you use Bankless Budget, which recognizes emails that aren't purchases and doesn't add them to your budget.

What these alerts don't cover

• Amounts can change. The alert is for an approved purchase, and an approved amount can change before the charge settles. A restaurant tip is added later, and at gas pumps the first amount is often a placeholder that's usually less than what you paid, with the actual total settled afterward.
• Purchases of $1 or less. These don't send an alert, so check your statement for them if they matter to you.
• No categories. An alert tells you the merchant and the amount, not what kind of purchase it was.
• Only what you set up. Cash, and any card without the alert turned on, won't appear.

It's worth reviewing your alert settings from time to time, and after you get a new card.

Using the alerts with Bankless Budget

Bankless Budget turns these alerts into a spending dashboard and a monthly budget. It reads the alerts in the Gmail label you choose and sends each alert's text to Google's Gemini AI, which pulls out the purchase details, like the merchant, amount and date, and suggests a category. On the Free and Plus plans you start each import yourself; on Pro, alerts are imported as they arrive. It never asks for your American Express login.