5% Back On Amazon Is Nice, But 6-10% Back Is Nicer

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The Chase Amazon Prime Visa offers 5% cash back for Prime members and a $70 Amazon gift card for signing up. There is no annual fee for Prime members.

But with a little more effort you can do better. That’s a very weak signup bonus for a card. In a 5/24 world you should work on maximizing the signup bonuses earned from cards with more lucrative signup bonuses.

But besides for that, you can do better than 5% cash back at Amazon.

-The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card offers $300 cash back (in the form of 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points) for spending $3,000 in 3 months. It offers 5% cash back (in the form of 5 Ultimate Rewards points) per dollar for up to $25,000 in annual spending at office supply stores and on telecom and cable. It also offers 2% cash back (in the form of 2 Ultimate Rewards points) per dollar for up to $25,000 in annual spending at gas stations and restaurants. There is no annual fee.

Office supply stores like Office Depot and Staples sell gift cards to hundreds of other stores, including Amazon.

If you, your spouse, or your additional user have an Ink Plus, Ink Bold, Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, or Sapphire Reserve card those points can be transferred into airline miles or hotel points where the value per point can range anywhere from 0.5 cents to 15 cents each. The sky is the limit based on the redemption, but it is not hard to use 5 points for a value of 7.5-10% or more.

If you, your spouse, or your additional user have a Sapphire Reserve card you can redeem those points for 1.5 cents each towards paid airfare, hotels, car rentals, and activities. That makes your effective rebate on Amazon purchases at least 7.5%.

-The Chase Freedom card offers 5% cash back (in the form of 5 Ultimate Rewards points) for up to $1,500 of spending per quarter in rotating categories. This quarter you can earn that bonus by spending at gas stations and local commuter transportation. Next quarter you can earn the bonus at grocery stores and drug stores.  There is no annual fee.

Many gas stations, grocery stores, and drug stores sell gift cards to hundreds of other stores, including Amazon. My local grocery store also offers free gas for buying gift cards, which sweetens the pot even more.

If you, your spouse, or your additional user have an Ink Plus, Ink Bold, Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, or Sapphire Reserve card those points can be transferred into airline miles or hotel points where the value per point can range anywhere from 0.5 cents to 15 cents each. The sky is the limit based on the redemption, but it is not hard to use 5 points for a value of 7.5-10% or more.

If you, your spouse, or your additional user have a Sapphire Reserve card you can redeem those points for 1.5 cents each towards paid airfare, hotels, car rentals, and activities. That makes your effective rebate on Amazon purchases at least 7.5%.

-The Amex EveryDay Preferred Credit Card from American Express offers 4.5 points per dollar on up to $6,000 in annual grocery spending if you make 30 transactions per month.  There is a $95 annual fee.

Many grocery stores sell gift cards to hundreds of other stores, including Amazon. My local grocery store also offers free gas for buying gift cards, which sweetens the pot even more.

This card allows you to transfer points into airline miles or hotel points where the value per point can range anywhere from 0.5 cents to 15 cents each. The sky is the limit based on the redemption, but it is not hard to use 4.5 points for a value of 7-9% or more.

If you have a Business Platinum card you can also use the points with the 50% points rebate on paid airfare, meaning 4.5 points is worth a minimum of 9-10% towards paid airfare.

-The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express offers 6% cash back on up to $6,000 in annual grocery spending. There is a $95 annual fee.

Many grocery stores sell gift cards to hundreds of other stores, including Amazon. My local grocery store also offers free gas for buying gift cards, which sweetens the pot even more.

Of course you do lose protections when you use gift cards. But if you are looking to have 90 day return protection and an extra year of warranty on specific products then you should use an AMEX that offers more than 1 mile per dollar spent like the Starwood Consumer AMEX, Starwood Business AMEX, AMEX EveryDay, AMEX EveryDay Preferred, or the Blue for Business AMEX. AMEX cards have by far the best purchase protections.

But if you don’t need purchase protection, you’ll do best by purchasing Amazon gift cards on a card that earns better than 5% back.

Amazon offers free shipping with $35+ orders or get free next-day shipping on all orders with a free trial of Amazon Prime. Prime members can share benefits with a Household member here, allowing them to double up on Amazon Prime promos!  A 6 month trial and discounted Prime membership is available with Amazon Student. EBT/Medicaid Cardholders can save on Prime Membership here.