Amex Round-Up was a service that allowed you to choose transaction categories for which you could round up individual American Express® Card purchases to the nearest $1, $5, or $10. Round-ups were charged as a separate transaction and deposited into a Philanthropi^TM Impact Account^TM.

Amex Round-Up has been discontinued.

Philanthropi is an independent public charity with a donor-advised fund program that facilitates tax-exempt grants to IRS-qualified public charities and assists organizations and individuals fulfilling their philanthropic objectives by offering giving tools and services.

No. We have stopped accepting new enrollments.

All round-ups that were charged to your Card prior to the Amex Round-Up pilot ending were sent to your Impact Account.

An Impact Account is a donor advised fund provided by Philanthropi Charitable.

A donor advised fund (DAF) is a charitable fund owned by a 501(c) charitable organization that accepts tax-deductible contributions, which they custody and invest so the funds can be gifted to charities when the donor chooses in the future. Once a contribution is made to a DAF, the DAF becomes the owner of the funds, which can only be used to make further grants to charitable organizations. Once a contribution has been made into a DAF, donors cannot generally have the funds returned to them. 

DAFs keep track of how much each donor has contributed to the DAF. Each donor acts as an advisor to the DAF regarding the funds that they contributed and may request that the DAF give those funds to charities that the donor chooses. While DAFs generally follow the advice and instructions that their donors provide, DAFs retain the final discretion whether to make a particular gift (for example, a DAF may not grant to a charity that it concludes is fraudulent, illegal, or not eligible for charitable donations).

No, once your round-up transactions are processed, they are considered a charitable contribution and are no longer available to be withdrawn.  

American Express reflects round-up transactions on your statement with Philanthropi as the merchant of record. Your statement will show “AXP RU PHILANTHROPI” or “AXP RU PHILANTHROPI PHILADELPHIA PA” for all round-up transactions. The original transaction and round-up transaction are two separate charges.    

In some cases, Amex Round-Up may have classified Card transactions differently than other American Express products, such as Membership Rewards® programs. Additionally, sometimes merchants have parent companies that may not fall into the category you selected. For example, most purchases to large online retailers operating across several markets fall into the “Shopping” category. However, a grocery order from such a retailer may fall into the “Groceries” category. If you have questions about specific round-up transactions, you can contact us anytime at global.americanexpress.com/contact-us or call the number on the back of your American Express® Card and a Customer Care Professional will assist you.

Please also note that the categories that you chose for round-up transactions are separate and distinct from any rewards bonus accelerator categories you may have with your Card.   

• Depending on the dollar amount of your purchase and what amount you selected to round-up that category, it might not be eligible to be rounded up. For example, a transaction of $2 would not be rounded up to the nearest 1 dollar since it is already at the nearest next whole dollar. If you chose to round up a purchase category to the nearest $5, you would have a $3 round-up transaction. If you chose to round up to the nearest $10, you would have an $8 round-up transaction. To see examples on how different dollar amounts are rounded up, please click “See Examples” under “Settings”.
• In some instances, purchases may not round up due to periodic maintenance, updates and outages in the round-up feature. 

Round-ups were automatically calculated using the payment amount of the purchase submitted by the merchant as the amount to be rounded up. In some cases, this payment amount may have been updated after it's submitted, including in cases that you asked for a tip to be added to it. Such updates to the payment amount of the purchase would not affect the amount of the corresponding round-up, which would continue to reflect the round-up value of the purchase amount that was first submitted. Accordingly, in some cases that you added a tip to a rounded-up purchase, the amount of your round-up may not reflect the final transaction amount.

We used this method to calculate and charge your round-ups to enable your contributions to be processed at the time the merchant charges your Card providing a simple way to track your round-ups. 

If a merchant submitted a single payment for both your purchase and your tip:

Round-ups were calculated at the point of purchase on eligible purchases. Merchants apply tips through different means based on the industry and their policies. 

For transactions where the tip was included before you swipe your Card, the cost of the purchase and tip would be combined into one payment and your round-up would be applied to that transaction. 

For example, if you asked the salon to add a tip to the purchase before swiping your Card, the cost of the haircut and tip would be combined into one payment and you would be charged one round-up.

If a merchant submitted a payment for a purchase and then updated the payment to add your tip:

Often times, merchants will submit the payment for a purchase then add the tip to the total amount later. This is common in restaurants where you add the tip after swiping your Card. In these scenarios, your round-up would not include the tip as it was not part of the purchase amount when your Card was initially charged.

For example, if you asked to add a tip to the payment after it's been submitted (e.g., by adding a tip when you sign the receipt), your round-up would be based on the payment of the meal not including your tip. 

If a merchant submitted one payment for your purchase and another payment for your tip:

Merchants may also submit one payment for your purchase and charge a secondary purchase for your tip. As these are two separate Card transactions, you would be charged for two round-ups.

For example, a ride-share company may submit a payment to us for the cost of your ride and then submit a second payment to us for the tip that you gave to the driver. In such a case, two round-ups would be made – one to round up the payment of the ride and another to round up your tip.

In some cases, merchants may have submitted multiple separate payments for related purchases. In this case, a round-up was made for each payment, including instances where your interaction with the merchant appeared to be a single transaction. Some examples of these purchases and how round-ups would be calculated are described below.

If a hotel separated the payment for two nights that are booked under the same reservation:

If a retail store submitted separate payments for the purchase of items purchased together:

If an online marketplace charged separate payments for an order that is shipped in multiple parts:

There was a $200 limit to the sum of your round-up transactions per calendar month. The limit reset at the beginning of each month.

Yes, round-up transactions are considered a separate transaction with a different merchant than the original purchase that was rounded up. If your American Express® Card is enrolled in a rewards program, these separate round-up transactions that you made with Amex Round-Up earned Membership Rewards points, cash back rewards, and other loyalty rewards just like other purchases you made with your Card. Some rewards programs may offer opportunities to earn additional rewards for certain purchases (for example, an offer may be extended for purchases at grocery stores to earn additional rewards). Such purchases would continue to earn additional rewards on the amount of the purchase. However, the rounded-up contribution into your Impact Account would not earn additional rewards.

Round-up transactions are separate and distinct transactions from Card transactions that are rounded up, appear separately on your Billing Statement, and have different transaction types than rounded up Card transactions. Eligible rounded up Card transactions continue to earn additional rewards based on transaction type. However, round-up transactions do not earn additional rewards based on the transaction types of the corresponding rounded up Card transactions.  

The round-up transaction was usually charged in real time. In some instances, a merchant may authorize a transaction without charging the purchase, causing round-up transactions to appear on your statement without the original transaction. For questions about your statement, you can contact us anytime at global.americanexpress.com/contact-us or by calling the number on the back of your Card, and a Customer Care Professional will assist you. 

If you return or cancel your original purchase, you will still be charged for the round-up transaction. 

In the case of fraud, American Express will work with you to refund the fraudulent charges including any round-up transactions associated with the fraudulent transactions. 

For questions about your American Express account, you can contact us anytime at global.americanexpress.com/contact-us or by calling the number on the back of your Card and a Customer Care Professional will assist you.

For questions about your Philanthropi Impact Account, please email assist@philanthropi.com.

To view the American Express Terms of Service for Amex Round-Up, please visit  americanexpress.com/en-us/banking/round-up/terms-of-service.