Is The Amazon Credit Card Worth It Domain_10

The Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card offers big rewards earning opportunities for anyone who shops on Amazon. Which, according to Statista, included over 200 million Amazon Prime members in 2020. But is this Amazon credit card worth it for anybody?

No, it’s likely not worth it for

everyone
, as the value this menu brings depends on your spending habits. But for avid Amazon shoppers, there might non be a more rewarding credit card out there. Let’southward dig into the details to see whether the Amazon Prime Visa aligns with your state of affairs, or whether you should consider alternative options.

In this article

  • The basics: Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card
  • How to make the Amazon Prime number credit card worth information technology
  • Would the Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card be better?
  • Alternatives to Amazon credit cards
  • FAQs
  • Bottom line

The nuts: Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card


Sign-up bonus:

$150 Amazon gift carte upon approval


Rewards charge per unit:

v% greenbacks back at Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market place; ii% at restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores; 1% on all other purchases


Annual fee:

Technically $0, simply an eligible Prime membership ($119 per year) is required for this card


Review:

Bank check out our Amazon Prime number Rewards Visa Signature Card review.

The Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card is easily one of the superlative credit card options for frequent Amazon shoppers. Beingness able to earn 5%

dorsum at Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market is likely the all-time yous’ll find for Amazon purchases. Other bonus categories for everyday purchases are too helpful.

Other perks include no foreign transaction fees and plenty of Visa Signature benefits. Here are many of the provided benefits for cardholders:

  • Purchase protection
  • Extended warranty protection
  • Auto rental standoff damage waiver
  • Roadside dispatch
  • Travel and emergency assistance
  • Lost luggage reimbursement
  • Baggage filibuster insurance
  • Travel accident insurance
  • 24/vii Visa Signature concierge service

In addition, the Amazon Prime Rewards Bill of fare offers different options for making Amazon purchases and paying for them over time. For eligible purchases, you tin choose an option for equal monthly payments at checkout. Depending on the full buy corporeality, the monthly payments could be spread out over half-dozen, 12, or 18 months. You won’t earn rewards for choosing to brand equal monthly payments, simply you can avoid whatever interest rate for these purchases equally long as you make your payments.

How to make the Amazon Prime credit carte du jour worth it

If you compare credit cards, information technology’due south typically piece of cake to find how much yous would have to spend on a rewards credit card to offset its annual fee, if applicable. For the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa, you lot would need to spend at least $380 your first year and at to the lowest degree $2,380 your second twelvemonth (more on these calculations below) to beginning the $119 Amazon Prime number annual membership fee.

Keep in mind that it’southward non necessarily a fair comparison to only gauge the value of your Prime membership in relation to having this credit card account. Amazon Prime offers loads of benefits that have aught to do with Amazon credit cards, such equally fast and free deliveries, as well equally admission to Prime Video streaming, Amazon Photos, Amazon Music Prime, and Prime Gaming. These benefits together could hands offset your almanac membership fee.

But to make things elementary, nosotros’ll ignore these benefits in our calculations of how much you might take to spend on your Amazon Prime Rewards Visa to starting time an Amazon Prime membership fee of $119.

Scenario 1: First twelvemonth of membership

It shouldn’t be besides difficult to offset the almanac membership fee the first year because the card’south welcome bonus is a $150 Amazon gift card upon approval. After a quick subtraction ($119 – $100), we cease upwardly with $nineteen as our overall cost.

Allow’s run into how much you would take to spend on your card to get-go the remaining $19:


  • Earning five% from Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market:

    For purchases in this category, y’all would have to spend $380 ($19 / 0.05).

  • Earning two% from restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores:

    For purchases in this category, you would take to spend $950 ($nineteen / 0.02).

  • Earning i% from all other purchases:

    For purchases in this category, you would have to spend $one,900 ($nineteen / 0.01).

To outset the $19 by spending in ii or more than of these categories, you lot would have to spend between $380 and $1,900 during the offset twelvemonth of account opening. To suspension information technology downwardly more than, divide these numbers by 12 and you go well-nigh $32 to $158 in spending per month.

Scenario ii: Second year of membership

Unfortunately, yous don’t get another welcome bonus (Amazon.com souvenir menu) for every year of card membership, which ways you lot won’t be able to immediately kickoff $100 of your $119 Amazon Prime membership for the 2nd yr.

Allow’s see how much you would have to spend with the Amazon Prime number Rewards Visa to first the $119 fee for the 2d year:


  • Earning 5% from Amazon.com and Whole Foods Marketplace:

    For purchases in this category, you would have to spend $ii,380 ($119 / 0.05).

  • Earning 2% from restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores:

    For purchases in this category, you would have to spend $5,950 ($119 / 0.02).

  • Earning ane% from all other purchases:

    For purchases in this category, you would have to spend $11,900 ($119 / 0.01).

Of grade, the amounts yous accept to spend in the second year and onward are much college compared to year one. Yous’re now talking most spending between $2,380 and $11,900, depending on your spending habits. Divided by 12, that’s most $198 to $992 per calendar month.

Overall, these calculations amount to more than the typical Amazon Prime fellow member is found to spend on a yearly footing, which is $i,400. Simply once again, these scenarios only account for spending on the Amazon Prime number Rewards Visa and don’t business relationship for other benefits.

Would the Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Carte be improve?

Believe information technology or not, you can still brand purchases on Amazon if you don’t have an Amazon Prime number membership. You lose all the benefits of Prime, simply you lot also get to skip the $119 membership fee. Removing the fee creates situations where the Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Carte, which doesn’t require a Prime membership, can polish.

Here are the basics of the Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Bill of fare:


Sign-up bonus:

Earn a $60 Amazon gift card upon approval of credit card application


Rewards rate:

3% cash back at Amazon.com and Whole Foods Marketplace; 2% at restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores; and 1% on all other purchases


Annual fee:

$0


Review:

Check out our Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card review.

As you can run across, this bill of fare isn’t much different from the Prime Visa Signature version. The welcome bonus is lower and the earning rate maxes out at a 3% cashback rate, but the bonus categories are the same and the annual fee is $0. And this $0 is for existent considering you don’t need a Prime membership to qualify for the Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card.

This means you wouldn’t accept to spend a certain amount of money per year to showtime an annual price like you might with the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa. If you don’t spend loads of money on Amazon each year, but do shop in that location occasionally, this bill of fare might make sense for you. Withal, there are more credit card options to consider (see below) that might make more than sense and offer increased cashback rewards depending on your situation.

The benefits you might miss out on past not having the Prime card and an Amazon Prime number Membership include Prime number shipping options (costless two-day shipping) and access to Amazon Prime number Video, Amazon Music Prime, Amazon Photos, and Prime Gaming.

Alternatives to Amazon credit cards

This may surprise you, just some of the best credit cards for shopping on Amazon aren’t Amazon credit cards. You might find that Amazon cards don’t completely align with your financial situation or goals. For instance, if your spending habits are spread out betwixt Amazon and other popular retailers, you might want to consider a cashback card with an overall higher earning rate.

One possible culling is the Chase Freedom Unlimited®. This carte offers 5% cash dorsum on travel purchased through Hunt Ultimate Rewards, 3% cash dorsum on dining and drugstore purchases, and 1.five% cash back on all other purchases. The key hither is the cash back on . This type of increased earning rate for full general expenses could prove useful if your purchases are spread out between dissimilar categories. You can also transfer Chase Freedom rewards points to a Chase Sapphire credit card for a boost to your travel redemptions.

For more data, check out our Chase Freedom Unlimited review.

If you want to avert bonus categories altogether, it’s easy to earn cash back with the Citi®
Double Cash Card – 18 month BT offer card. This carte du jour offers up to 2% cash back on all purchases: i% when y’all buy and 1% equally you pay for those purchases. That’south non quite the 5% you could earn with the Amazon Prime number Visa Card, but you as well aren’t limited to Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market. In many situations, earning up to 2% on your purchases could make more sense.

For more information, check out our Citi Double Cash Card review.

FAQs

Tin can I apply my Amazon credit menu anywhere?

It depends on which Amazon credit carte du jour you take considering Amazon store cards aren’t the aforementioned every bit Amazon Visa cards. The major departure betwixt Amazon store cards vs. Amazon Visa cards is that the store cards volition only piece of work on Amazon and their card issuer is Synchrony. The Amazon Visa cards will work anywhere Visa credit cards are accustomed and their card issuer is Chase.

Does an Amazon credit card improve your credit score?

Like virtually whatsoever credit card, an Amazon credit card could help improve your credit score if yous aren’t missing any payments and don’t carry high balances. But similar most credit cards, late payments and loftier credit utilization (typically using over 30% of your available credit limit) could negatively impact your credit score.

What are the benefits of an Amazon credit bill of fare?

Amazon credit cards are designed to offer rewards for online shopping, specifically on Amazon. They typically don’t have annual fees (though some require an Amazon Prime number membership) and might offering bonus rewards for other non-Amazon expenses, such equally grocery or restaurant purchases. If Amazon is 1 of your top places to shop, an Amazon credit card could make sense for you.

Bottom line

The Amazon Prime Visa Credit carte won’t exist worth information technology in every state of affairs — mainly if you don’t spend enough in the bonus categories — merely it could make sense for plenty of individuals. Since Amazon sells basically everything you lot could ever desire or need, information technology’southward likely non too difficult for some people to be able to get-go the Prime membership fee and some.

Simply if yous don’t shop on Amazon as much as you thought you did, another credit card offer might make more than sense. For shopping trips, cashback cards are typically some of the all-time options for earning rewards on your everyday purchases. Check out our list of the best cashback credit cards.

Writer Details

Ben Walker, CEPF


Ben Walker, CEPF

Ben Walker, CEPF, is a credit cards and travel author at FinanceBuzz who loves helping others achieve their travel goals through financially sound decisions. For over a decade, he has been using credit card points and miles for the sole purpose of traveling the world. Ben is a Certified Educator of Personal Finance and has been featured in The Washington Post, MSN, Debt.com, and Finder.com.

Source: https://financebuzz.com/amazon-credit-card-worth-it

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