PDFCellsConvert a American Express statement PDF to Excel
For the last two years, download your transactions from your Amex online account as Excel, CSV or PDF. For older statements, open the PDF in PDFCells and download Excel: dates are full MM/DD/YY, payments carry a minus sign, and merchant lines that wrap are joined into one row.
What an American Express statement looks like
| Part | What is printed |
|---|---|
| Account Summary | Previous Balance, Payments/Credits, New Charges, Fees, Interest Charged, New Balance |
| Payments and Credits | Summary, then Detail with Date, Description, Amount; payments as -$89.63 |
| New Charges | Summary, then Detail; charges unsigned ($874.80), often grouped by card member with a “Card Ending” heading |
| Dates | MM/DD/YY (02/08/26); a trailing * marks a posting date rather than a transaction date (01/20/26*) |
| Descriptions | Merchant on the first line, then one to three more lines (location, phone, category) |
This layout matches a published February 2026 statement and Amex’s own 2014 sample statement, so it has been stable for years. There is no running balance.
Converting it with PDFCells
- Download the statement PDF from American Express online banking (Statements & Activity). A PDF saved from online banking has a text layer, so it is read exactly and free.
- Open it at pdfcells.com. The PDF is opened and converted on your device. Nothing leaves the browser unless you choose an AI feature, and then only what that feature needs (exactly what is sent).
- Check each table against the page in the grid. Untick any table you don’t want, such as a daily balance summary.
- Download Excel.
- Dates become Excel dates, including posting dates marked with
*. - Wrapped lines (location, phone, category) join onto the transaction above. The cleaned payee is built from that joined description, so check it if you use payees for bank rules.
- Signs: payments are already negative and charges positive, so the sum of the amounts equals New Charges minus Payments/Credits.
- Statement formats: when the detail tables carry the “Payments and Credits” and “New Charges” titles, PDFCells reads them as one card account, checks them against the Account Summary and offers OFX, QBO and the CSVs. If a table comes out titled only “Detail” or with a “Card Ending” caption, it isn’t recognised as a section and the statement won’t tie; rename the table in the grid to its section name.
American Express’s own download
Amex says your previous two years of transactions can be viewed online and downloaded as a PDF, Excel or CSV file (transaction history FAQ), and that recent activity and the past six billing statements can be downloaded for Quicken or QuickBooks (download FAQ); both checked October 2026. Older statements, including archived ones, are available as PDFs, which is where a converter comes in.
Questions
What does the asterisk after an Amex date mean?
Amex marks a posting date with *, usually on payments. The other rows show the transaction date.
How far back can I download Amex transactions?
Amex says two years of transactions can be downloaded as Excel, CSV or PDF, and the past six statements for Quicken or QuickBooks. For older periods, convert the archived PDF statements.