American Express Essentials is committed to providing you with full and transparent information about Cookie and Similar Technologies use.
Cookie Policy
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files which are placed on your computer (or Smartphone or other device used to access the internet) whenever you visit a website. We use Cookies for different reasons, including to enhance your visit to our website.
The Cookies we place on your computer cannot be used to retrieve any other data from your hard drive, to pass viruses to your computer, or capture your e-mail address. Each Cookie is unique to your web browser and device. 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.
Cookies & Similar Technologies serve several functions. Most Cookies & Similar Technologies won’t collect information that identifies you, and will instead collect more general information such as how users arrive at a website or app, or a user’s general location.
Cookies & Similar Technologies can help to remember your username and preferences, how well a website or app is performing or even allow content to be recommended to you.
Certain Cookies & 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.
The Cookies and Similar Technologies American Express Essentials uses, and their purposes
- American Express Essentials Cookies and Similar TechnologiesThese Cookies and Similar Technologies are vital to the basic performance of the American Express Essentials 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
- Functionality Cookies and Similar TechnologiesThese 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
- Performance Cookies and Similar TechnologiesWe use these Cookies and Similar Technologies to optimise the experience on the American Express Essentials 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.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.
- American Express Essentials Marketing Cookies and Similar TechnologiesThese Cookies and Similar Technologies are placed by American Express Essentials 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
Note that all such Cookies and Similar Technologies will be blocked if you choose to ‘Decline’ Cookies and Similar Technologies through our site (see ‘Managing your Cookie and Similar Technologies Preferences’ section).
- Third Party Marketing Cookies and Similar Technologies & Social Advertising American Express Essentials 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 (www.bluekai.com/privacypolicy.php ).Note that all such Cookies and Similar Technologies will be blocked if you choose to ‘Decline’ Cookies and Similar Technologies through our site (see ‘Managing your Cookie and Similar Technologies Preferences’ section).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 presents 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 Essentials Website
You can manage your Cookie and Similar Technologies preferences through the American Express Essentials website, and/or through adjusting your browser settings:
a) Through the American Express Essentials Website
You may choose to either ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’ marketing cookies or Similar Technologies from our site by going to the Set Cookie Preferencessection on in our Privacy Statement. If you choose to ‘Decline’ marketing cookies and Similar Technologies, essential, functionality and performance cookies and Similar Technologies will not be blocked.
Any choice you make will not delete any existing Cookies and Similar Technologies previously placed on your computer by our site, but will prevent further cookies and Similar Technologies from being placed.
If you wish to delete the Cookies and Similar Technologies that are currently stored on your computer, you cannot do this through our site and must instead do this through your browser settings (see below).
Any choice you make on our site will be stored and applied for one year from the date you make the choice, or until you delete all existing Cookies and Similar Technologies through your web browser settings (because if you do this, it will also delete the record of your choice). The next time you access our site after the expiry of the one year period or after deleting your cookies, you will be prompted to provide your choice again.
b) Through your browser settings
If you’d prefer to restrict, block or delete cookies and Similar Technologies from www.amexessentials.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 Essentials 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 Essentials site will not be honored on non-American Express Essentials websites.
Cookie 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’).