American Express

American Express:

American Express is much diversified financial services organization that is also referred to as the AmEx or simply Amex and it deals in various financial products like credit cards, traveler’s cheques and the charge card. American express is a public listed company, founded in year 1850 and currently headquartered in New York. Till year 2005, American Express had total 65,800 employees who were committed to “Do More”. The financial products offered by American Express are very well known in the finance and insurance industry. The prime areas responsible for the popularity of American Express are the traveler’s cheques, charge card and the credit cards.

American express has introduced its various products gradually and over time. The first launched American express card was the travel charge card introduced in year 1958 and 250,000 cards were launched at that time. The annual fees on these cards were kept at six US dollars. In 1959, American express introduced the plastic cards also known as the ISO 7810 plastic cards.

American Express introduced the American Express platinum card and American express gold card in year 1984. These cards were meant to meet the demands of various segments of the market. These cards were offered only to the customers of American Express who were transacting with the bank for about two years and had an excellent spending and credit history.

American Express credit card was first introduced in year 1987 under the name of Optima card and these cards allowed customers to carry balance on these cards together with extended option on the travel charge cards. The Optima and Optima Platinum cards are still offer by American Express together with a wide range of credit cards that are meant to meet the varying demands of different customers.

American Express black card was introduced by the company in year 1999 that are also known as Centurion Card and these cards are meant to cater to the requirements of elite class of society. The annual fees charged on these cards started with US $1,000 and now it has reached to the amount of US $2,500. These cards offer exclusive benefits to the high class customers. Again in year 1999, the American Express blue was launched that was primarily designed to meet the needs for young adults. Amex blue was a very popular card because it had no annual fee and included a reward program or the American express rewards.

In year 2005, American Express came up with Clear that was the first credit card to be advertised as having absolutely no fees, not of any type. In the same year American Express came up with one that was primarily a saving accelerator plan with one percent rate of interest.

In 2007, American Express again started raising the fees associated with American platinum charge card and the annual fee was raised for both the personal cards and the business division.

Apart from the cards mentioned, there were numerous other cards offered by American Express at various times and you can obtain the details from the internet.

American Express has an international presence and it operates in various countries of the world and American Express Canada and American Express Australia are worth mentioning here. For information, kindly visit their respective websites and if you are a customer you can also use American Express log on. Also, try finding interesting information regarding Amex simply cash, American express membership rewards and American express Online through the use of a good search engine.