What is an American Express Virtual Card and How to Get it?

American Express Virtual card is a virtual card number issued by American Express for online shopping, which can be used as an alternative to your physical American Express cards. To apply for the free virtual card you just need to fill in the request form on Amex website. The aim of this article is to show how easy it is to get one and how to use it for online shopping.

American Express is one of the most popular credit card brands worldwide, and here in Serbia they are accepted pretty much everywhere (supermarkets, gas stations, clothing stores etc.) All Amex cards come with EMV chip which makes them very secure; however, using physical cards for online shopping can be quite risky.

I have an American Express Gold card, but I’m not using it for online shopping because it’s easier to just use my Mastercard for this kind of purchases. However Amex is accepted pretty much everywhere in the world, so whenever I come out for a walk or travel somewhere else I can’t use my physical gold card due to various reasons (the POS can’t read the chip, it’s raining, is totally dark etc.)

If I wanted to pay for something online using my gold card number that will be sent out to some random person on the other side of the world (sounds like phishing), or I’ll have to find an ATM with Amex logo on it and withdraw cash to pay for whatever I’m buying online.

I just wanted something that is secure, works pretty much anywhere in the world, and which I can use to pay for stuff online. So I decided to apply for an American Express Virtual card. Here’s how you can do it too:

First of all head over to American Express US website and sign in.

Choose your country (the one where you actually live) and enter your personal details (you can use fake data if you want). You should be able to apply for the virtual card without providing any financial data at this step.

The next step is to choose your temporary Amex card number. Note that if you want to apply for first time you need to enter first 4 digits on the bottom of your physical Amex card (it’s embossed numbers on the front of it) and click on “Browse”. You should then get a popup with the list of available numbers:

Note that you can’t apply for any random number here, it has to be one of those listed first. If you don’t have physical Amex card and first 4 digits on your personal info match those under “Browse” section – go back and enter the rest of the digits on the front of your Amex card.

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