What can an Amex authorized user see online?

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2019

I am thinking of adding someone to my account and am wondering what they will be able to see when they are added as an additional user and not an account manager.
Will they be able to see all transactions made or just their own?
Will they be able to view statements?
Will they be able to add the card to their own Amex account to be viewable in the app? And if so, will they be notified of every purchase or just their own?

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
I am thinking of adding someone to my account and am wondering what they will be able to see when they are added as an additional user and not an account manager.
Will they be able to see all transactions made or just their own?
Will they be able to view statements?
Will they be able to add the card to their own Amex account to be viewable in the app? And if so, will they be notified of every purchase or just their own?

Hi. I am an authorized user on two AmEx accounts from the same person. I will try to answer your questions in my experience.

1. Will they be able to see all transactions made or just their own? I can only see my transactions. Not the main cardholder's.

2. Will they be able to view statements? I have a version of a statement. But it only includes my transactions and my payments.

3. Will they be able to add the card to their own Amex account to be viewable in the app? I have my own AmEx account as an authorized user. I am able to add bank accounts and make payments to the AmEx account. Other than the authorized user accounts, I do not have any other AmEx cards. But I was able to sign up and get onto the AmEx site as an authorized user. I hope I am properly answering your question here.

4. And if so, will they be notified of every purchase or just their own? I am setup for purchase notifications. But, I am only notified of my purchases, not the main cardholder's.

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2019

Great, thank you! That did answer all the important questions!

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2019

Just a note, not sure if this matters to you, but the authorized user can see the available credit on the card. If they know the credit limit of the card, they could essentially back into the card's total balance.

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
Just a note, not sure if this matters to you, but the authorized user can see the available credit on the card. If they know the credit limit of the card, they could essentially back into the card's total balance.

+1 This is 100% true. I have been able to figure out how much the main card user has charged based on the available balance v. my amount of purchases. However, I can't see what items she charged or when she charged. But I do know the balance on the account.

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2019

I see, thanks for the info! I finally got an email to add someone for 5,000 MR points and wanted to take advantage of it, but I just bought a gift for the person I’m adding that won’t receive it for a few months and didn’t want to ruin the surprise! It’s the Gold card so it shouldn’t show any limit anyways and the statements are always $0 so it sounds like I’m good to go.

bourgogne · ‎04-17-2019

2. Will they be able to view statements? I have a version of a statement. But it only includes my transactions and my payments.

you can download a statement that has only your own charges? I don't think this is correct at least on a consumer account. please verify.

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2019

@bourgogne wrote:

2. Will they be able to view statements? I have a version of a statement. But it only includes my transactions and my payments.

you can download a statement that has only your own charges? I don't think this is correct at least on a consumer account. please verify.

This a screenshot of my AmEx Marriott Bonvoy authorized user account, consumer, not business. As stated, it is a "version" of a statement. What I meant by "version" is that is it is not a full statement. I can only see my charges and payments. I call it my "statement" because it is on the Statements and Activity page.

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
I see, thanks for the info! I finally got an email to add someone for 5,000 MR points and wanted to take advantage of it, but I just bought a gift for the person I’m adding that won’t receive it for a few months and didn’t want to ruin the surprise! It’s the Gold card so it shouldn’t show any limit anyways and the statements are always $0 so it sounds like I’m good to go.

Sounds good. As for seeing a balance on the authorized user statement - there is no balance on what i am calling the statement (according to a previous poster-it looks like I may have misnamed what I am seeing as a "statement". I don't know what to call it. But, it only shows authorized user charges and payments. You can also go back to previous billing periods and review the information. The available balance is listed on the home page as a running tally.

bourgogne · ‎04-17-2019

that is not a statement, that is a summary of your charges. a statement is a pdf or a file. one of the many limitations of amex is what the authorised user sees or rather does not see. no statement balance from the last cycle and no running balance either with or without pending charges. what they do give is this worthless bs below from my young au. I guess it could be worse and just lump the card in with the primary user as chase does but to me its just another worthless ax attempt at trying to do something. my user is totally in the dark, short of doing a chat of having me send him details a few times a month. archaic is the word that comes to mind