How to Convert an American Express PDF Statement to CSV or Excel
American Express provides credit card statements as PDF files. While the Amex online portal offers limited CSV and OFX downloads for recent activity, older statements, annual summaries, and supplementary card data are only available as PDFs. Here's how to convert them into clean, structured CSV or Excel data — for free, in a few seconds.
The Problem With Amex PDF Statements
American Express statements have a format that is quite different from standard bank statements. Instead of separate "Money out" and "Money in" columns, Amex uses a single amount column where charges are positive and credits (refunds, payments to your account) are negative. This structure, combined with membership rewards summaries, interest charges, and fee breakdowns all bundled into one PDF, makes copy-pasting into a spreadsheet particularly unreliable.
If you try to select and paste from an Amex PDF, you'll typically get garbled text with descriptions merging into amounts, dates losing their format, and non-transaction lines (reward points, payment reminders, interest calculations) mixed in with actual charges. For business card statements with dozens or hundreds of transactions per month, manual cleanup is not viable.
Quick answer: Use ReconcileIQ's free PDF converter. Select American Express, upload your PDF, and download clean CSV or Excel output. Your first statement of up to 10 pages converts free on a new account.
How to Convert Your Amex Statement (4 Steps)
- Download the statement from American Express
Sign in to American Express online banking and download the PDF statement for each period you need. One PDF per statement period. - Create a free account
Register from the converter page, then open ReconcileIQ and open the PDF converter inside it. There is no bank to pick from a list — the extraction reads whatever layout is in front of it, which is why statements from banks we have never seen convert just as well. - Upload your PDF
Drag and drop or click to browse. The file is uploaded over an encrypted connection and read on our servers, which is what lets scans and photos work as well as native PDFs. - Download your CSV or Excel file
Review the extracted transactions on screen, then download as CSV (for accounting software import) or Excel (for spreadsheet analysis).
Privacy note: Your statement is uploaded over an encrypted connection and read on our servers rather than in the browser. That is a deliberate trade: it is what allows scanned and photographed statements to convert, not just native PDFs.
What the Converter Extracts
The American Express parser extracts these fields from your PDF statement:
- Date — charge date in a clean, sortable format
- Description — merchant name and transaction detail
- Amount — signed amount (charges positive, credits/refunds negative)
- Card member — identifies the card holder for supplementary card statements
The parser filters out non-transaction lines such as rewards summaries, interest calculations, payment due notices, and membership fee breakdowns. Only actual charges and credits appear in the CSV output. Multi-line merchant descriptions are merged correctly, and amounts with currency symbols are normalised.
Can I Download Amex Statements as CSV Directly?
American Express does offer CSV, OFX, and QFX downloads through the online account portal. You can find the download option under "Statements & Activity" by selecting a statement period and choosing a file format. However, there are important limitations:
- Limited date range — CSV exports typically cover only the current period and a few months of recent history
- No annual summaries — the downloadable CSV doesn't include the year-end summary view that many accountants need for tax returns
- Supplementary cards — activity from additional cardholders may not be separated cleanly in the direct export
- Archived statements — older statement periods are only available as PDF downloads
If you need data from a specific historical period, a full year for tax filing, or a clean breakdown by card member, converting the PDF statement is often the most reliable approach.
Alternative: Amex Connect / Open Banking
Amex supports direct feeds into some accounting platforms (Xero and QuickBooks have Amex integrations). However, these feeds are limited to recent transaction history and require the platform's own subscription. For historical data, PDF conversion remains the most practical option.
Amex Statement Formats
American Express issues several types of statements depending on your card product and account type:
- Amex Personal Cards — Gold, Platinum, Cashback Everyday, Nectar, British Airways. Single amount column with charges and credits. Includes rewards and points summaries.
- Amex Business Cards — Business Gold, Business Platinum, Corporate Card. Similar layout with additional merchant category information and more detailed transaction references.
- Amex Charge Cards vs Credit Cards — charge cards (Gold, Platinum) must be paid in full; credit cards allow balances to carry over. Both use the same statement format, but credit card statements include interest and minimum payment sections.
- Supplementary Card Statements — additional cards linked to a main account. Transactions may be grouped by card member or listed together with a card member identifier.
The converter handles all common UK Amex formats. If you encounter a statement layout that isn't parsed correctly, the tool falls back to a generic PDF parser that works with any card provider.
Why Bookkeepers Need Amex Data in CSV
American Express is a credit card, not a bank account, which means it needs to be reconciled separately from your main bank feed. Many UK SMEs use Amex business cards for the cashback and rewards programmes, but this creates an additional data source that bookkeepers must handle each month.
Common scenarios where you need Amex CSV data:
- Import into accounting software — Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent, and Pandle all accept CSV imports for credit card accounts
- Reconcile in ReconcileIQ — upload alongside your credit card ledger to automatically match and reconcile
- Analyse in Excel — spending analysis by merchant category, cashback tracking, expense reporting
- Code in CodeIQ — if you're a bookkeeper, CodeIQ can automatically code credit card transactions to your chart of accounts, classify VAT, and post back to your platform
- Expense claims and reimbursement — employees using supplementary Amex cards need clean CSV data for expense reports
- File with HMRC — structured credit card data for tax return preparation, MTD submissions, or VAT returns where card expenses need to be claimed
Convert Your Amex Statement Now
Fast, accurate, and checked on screen before you download. Your first statement of up to 10 pages converts free on a new account.
Convert your PDF now for freeFrequently Asked Questions
American Express online offers CSV, OFX, and QFX downloads for recent statement periods. However, the export window is limited and doesn't cover older or archived statements. For historical data or annual summaries, download the PDF statement and use a free converter to extract the transactions into CSV format.
Yes. The converter works with all UK Amex card types including Business Gold, Business Platinum, Corporate Cards, and supplementary card statements. Business statements with additional merchant category detail and references are all extracted correctly.
Amex statements use a single amount column where charges are positive and credits (refunds, payments) are negative. The converter preserves this signed format in the CSV output. Non-transaction items like rewards summaries, interest breakdowns, and membership fees are filtered out automatically.
Your first statement of up to 10 pages converts free on a new account. After that it runs on credits, and the cost is shown before anything is processed.