Amazon Prime Rewards visa review: 5% discount for Prime members
Do you have a Amazon prime subscription? If so, there is an easy way to save 5% on several of your purchases.
the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card offers Prime members 5% off purchases made on Amazon and Whole Foods.
And with special offers for cardholders, some purchases can be reduced by up to 20%!
But is it worth adding the card to your wallet based on these benefits alone? It probably depends on how much of your monthly purchases you make with Amazon.
In this review, the Clark team will evaluate every detail of this card and compare it to some of the best cash back rewards cards on the market.
What is the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa card?
The Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card is a rewards credit card that offers cash back benefits exclusively to Amazon Prime subscribers.
There is no annual fee for this card as long as you are an Amazon Prime member. It rewards 5% on purchases made on Amazon.com or Whole Foods and rewards of 1% to 2% for purchases outside the Amazon ecosystem.
This card is on Team Clark’s list for Best Cash Back Credit Cards, Best No Annual Fee Credit Cards, and Best Cards for Grocery Shopping.
Card Specifications and Benefits
The Amazon Prime Rewards Visa card requires that you have an Amazon Prime membership in order to enjoy the benefits of this card.
Join Amazon prime, which gives you access to free shipping and streaming TV, among other perks you will need a monthly or annual subscription:
- Monthly subscription to Amazon Prime: $ 12.99 plus taxes
- Amazon Prime Annual Subscription: $ 119 plus taxes
- Groups eligible for reduced subscription rates include: students, EBT beneficiaries
If you don’t have a Prime membership, you have the option to apply for the Amazon Rewards Visa card instead. It’s similar to this card but only rewards 3% on Amazon purchases.
Rewards program
The main rewards opportunities for this card are tied to Amazon, but they’re not limited to spending with the online retail giant.
Here’s a look at the rewards you can expect from this card:
- 5% Cash Back on Amazon.com purchases: An active Prime membership, which gives you free two-day (or faster) shipping on many items, is required to earn this level of cash back.
- 5% Cash Back at Whole Foods: The well-known high-end grocer is owned by Amazon, so the online retail giant is making shopping at Whole Foods a big plus with that credit card.
- 2% cash back at restaurants, gas stations and pharmacies: This matches the rewards you might get from 2% daily cash back cards like Clark Approved Citi Double Cash in three popular spending categories.
- 1% cash back on all other purchases.
You will receive your cash back in the form of reward points.
You can use your accumulated points to pay for Amazon purchases directly, in the form of credit card statement credits, or you can request a cash back deposit to a bank account that you link to your credit card account.
Main benefits for cardholders
- Up to 20% off select Amazon products: Cardholders will have access to discount opportunities on certain Amazon products. These are limited time offers, may have some restrictions and must be purchased with credit card to qualify for the big discount.
- Free gift card after approval: This credit card does not have a traditional welcome bonus that offers a cash reward for a certain spending threshold. Instead, it offers an instant gift card which is added to your Amazon account upon approval of the request. The amount of the gift card may vary. At the time of this article, the offer was for a $ 70 gift card. We’ve seen it up to $ 100 in the past.
- Extended warranty on many purchases: If you use this card to make a purchase on a product eligible for the warranty, it will extend the manufacturer’s warranty period by an additional year. The manufacturer’s warranty must be three years or less to be eligible.
- Car rental insurance: Amazon says that to get this coverage you just need to decline the rental company’s collision insurance and charge the full rental fee to your Amazon card. Coverage is secondary to your personal auto insurance, but it can still save you money.
- Zero Liability Fraud Protection: If your credit card is lost or stolen, you will not be held responsible for any fraudulent charges made with your card.
Cardholder fees
- Annual subscription : Nothing
- Balance transfer fees: 5% of the amount of the transfer with a minimum of $ 5
- Cash advance fees: 5% of the amount of each advance with a minimum of $ 10
- Foreign transaction fees: Nothing
- Late payment fees: Up to $ 39
Amazon Prime Rewards Card vs. 2% cash back credit cards
Credit card money expert Clark Howard’s standard recommendation is to get a rewards card that pays an unlimited 2% refund on all purchases with no annual fee.
This Amazon card isn’t quite that, but could it be better for a segment of dedicated Amazon consumers?
Let’s do an analysis.
Expense analysis
Since the benefits of having this card depend on how often you spend money at Amazon or Whole Foods, the first thing you want to look at is how much money you spend at these two retailers each month.
Every dollar you spend at either retailer will earn you an additional 3% on purchases with the Amazon card for a 2% card.
It adds up pretty quickly:
| Amazon + Whole Foods Spending per month | Amazon Card Cash Back (5%) | 2% card cash back |
| $ 50 | $ 2.50 | $ 1 |
| $ 100 | $ 5 | $ 2 |
| $ 200 | $ 10 | $ 4 |
| $ 300 | $ 15 | $ 6 |
| $ 400 | $ 20 | $ 8 |
| $ 500 | 25 $ | $ 10 |
| $ 800 | 40 $ | 16 $ |
| $ 1,000 | $ 50 | $ 20 |
| $ 1,500 | $ 75 | $ 30 |
Then, for the purposes of this expense analysis, you should eliminate all monthly expenses for meal, gasoline, and drugstore purchases. Indeed, the Amazon card and unlimited cash back cards at 2% will reward these purchases at the same rate of return: 2%.
Finally, you need to add up all the purchases you will make with the credit card each month that do not fall into the rewards categories we have already mentioned above: Amazon, Whole Foods, restaurants, gasoline or drugstores.
In all other spending categories, the 2% cash back card will earn you twice as much as the Amazon card (1%).
This too can add up quickly:
| Miscellaneous expenses per month | Amazon Card Cash Back (1%) | 2% card cash back |
| $ 50 | $ 0.50 | $ 1 |
| $ 100 | $ 1 | $ 2 |
| $ 200 | $ 2 | $ 4 |
| $ 300 | $ 3 | $ 6 |
| $ 400 | $ 4 | $ 8 |
| $ 500 | $ 5 | $ 10 |
| $ 800 | $ 8 | 16 $ |
| $ 1,000 | $ 10 | $ 20 |
| $ 1,500 | $ 15 | $ 30 |
At the end of the day, we believe the best solution is to have both types of cards in your wallet and use each when it is most beneficial.
However, if you pick just one, you’ll need to do some quick math to figure out where you fall in that first table versus where you fall in the second table to figure out which card will get you the most money. a given month.
Side by side comparison
Here’s a quick look at some of the top-tier Amazon card details compared to three of the best 2% cash back cards:
| Characteristic of the card | Visa Prime Amazon Rewards | Citi Double Cash | PayPal Cashback Mastercard | Signature Visa Fidelity Rewards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual subscription | Nothing | Nothing | Nothing | Nothing |
| Cash back rate | 5% at Amazon and Whole Foods, 2% on gasoline, restaurants and drugstores, 1% on all other purchases | Unlimited 2% (1% on purchase, 1% on payment of your bill) | Unlimited 2% | Unlimited 2% |
| Welcome bonus | Instant Amazon Gift Card ($ 70) | Nothing | Nothing | Nothing |
| Introductory APR offer for new purchases | Nothing | Nothing | Nothing | Nothing |
| Introductory APR offer for balance transfers | Nothing | 0% for 18 months | Nothing | Nothing |
| Foreign transaction fees | Nothing | 3% in US dollars per transaction | Nothing | 1% |
| Rental Vehicle Collision Waiver | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Cell Phone Protection | No | No | No | No |
Big takeaways
- 5% can add up quickly: There’s a reason this Amazon card is so appealing. If you shop frequently with the online retailer, there simply isn’t a better rate of cash back on a no annual fee card.
- The 2% cards are the little engine that could: With no spending or category restrictions, the possibilities to get your 2% back are limitless. And it can really help your cash returns add up at the end of a month.
- This card is not the place to look for welcome bonuses and promotional rates: When you’re dealing with a card that already offers some of the highest reward rates in the industry, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that it doesn’t come with significant introductory offers. And that’s OK. Clark Howard recommends evaluating cards based on what they offer you in the long run, not how much they offer you for the first few months of membership.
Final thoughts
Are you planning to add the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa card to your wallet? Let’s go over some of the main advantages and disadvantages of the card before making your final decision:
Advantages and disadvantages
| Benefits | The inconvenients |
| 5% discount on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases | Must pay for Prime membership to receive cash back rewards |
| No annual or foreign transaction fees | High balance transfer fees |
| Auto rental insurance and extended warranty coverage included | No APR introduction period on new purchases or balance transfers |
Final result
If you are a regular Amazon buyer and Primary subscriber, this rewards credit card is a great candidate to add to your wallet.
The 5% you’ll get back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases are some of the best returns you’ll find from any credit card, and the 2% back on three other popular spending categories ensures your total return rate is high. .
And, with no annual fee and with a rewards program that gives you cash, the card checks a lot of boxes for what money expert Clark Howard looks for in a rewards credit card.
This card is on our “best of” credit card lists for good reason.
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