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Moderator/Staff
Amazon Visa Card Warning
Is the Amazon Visa card the best choice for rewards? This review will show you the good, the bad, and the ugly. Read before you apply.
The Amazon Visa rewards program...
This is the main selling point. Like most cards in this category, you are given points for your spending. With the Amazon Visa, each points equals out to be one penny. When the account has $25 worth of points raked up, a discount voucher for that amount is given to the cardholder – this coupon can be used as a rebate the next time they’re shopping on the site. Amazon.com: they give three points for every dollar spent
Drugstores, Gas stations, and Restaurants: they give two points for every dollar spent
Everywhere Else: they give one point for every dollar spent
For purchases from Amazon, I would have to say this useful. For the 2 point category, it’s good but you can do better. Overall, I would have to say what makes the card’s rewards are worthwhile for Amazon.com. But for most of us, only a small portion of our total spending is done on their site, so it may not be worth the hassle of yet another credit card just for that purpose.
What about the statement credit for new accounts?
I’ve had this Amazon Visa card for years and as long as I can remember, they’ve been offering new accounts a statement credit of around thirty dollars for getting the card. This is a plus, but since they’ve been doing it for years, I don’t think it’s going to disappear anytime soon. So it’s definitely not some rare opportunity that will pass you by if you decided to hold of on getting the card.
What is the interest rates?
As you are well aware, interest rates are always subject to change, but while I was writing this I took a look on their site to see what they were…- Purchases: 18.24% or 21.24% (which one you get depends on your credit) for the Platinum and 13.24% for the Signature. Please note that these are all variable rates, so when the prime rate goes up, it means these interest rates will too.
- Balance Transfers: same as above
- Cash Advances: If the account has the 21.24% APR, then the cash advance rate is 23.24%. For others, the rate is 19.24%.
- Default APR: up to 29.99%
What have I liked and disliked about the Amazon Visa Card?
Since I’ve had it for several years, I’m definitely the appropriate person to be writing an Amazon Visa card review. Overall I liked the 3 points for Amazon, but other than that, I wasn’t really impressed with the rewards. They really should be more generous if they want to be competitive with today’s reward credit cards. Eventually I just stopped using the Amazon card regularly because of this.
Should you get the card?
Although I still have the card, for me personally it doesn’t make sense to use anymore. The rewards on Amazon purchases are actually good, but since only 2 or 3% of my annual credit card spending is on their site, it didn’t make sense for me to use the Amazon Visa as my everyday card.
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