Update: DEAD! Don’t miss it if this becomes alive again. Sign up for deal notification alerts here!
Read this first: Amazon Prime Going Up From $99 To $119 Per Year, But Here’s How You Can Lock In The $99 Rate For Future Years!
I make nearly all of my Amazon purchases via gift cards in order to earn 5 Chase points per dollar, which I value as getting about 10% back on my Amazon purchases.
To do that I use my Ink Business Cash® Credit Card card to buy Amazon gift cards at Office Max/Depot or Staples stores which earns a cool 5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent. Click Here to get more details on this card and compare to other business travel cards.
You can also purchase Amazon gift cards from grocery stores and earn 5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent this quarter with a Chase Freedom card. Click Here to get more details on this card and compare to other cards!
Last week I wrote the cost of Prime going up by 20% and about a loophole that I discovered 4 years ago that allows you to lock in the price of Prime for as many years as you want by purchasing $99 Prime Gift Memberships here. You can buy one gift membership at a time, but there’s no limit to how man orders you can make.
You can’t use gift cards to pay for regular Prime membership, but you can use them for Prime Gift Membership! That’s another reason to buy Prime Gift Memberships for future years as you can lock in 20% savings and earn 5 points per dollar spent!
But the best part about Prime Gift Memberships is that you can convert them back into Amazon gift cards at any time. You can send the gift of Prime to yourself and save it for the future. When you send yourself a gift of Prime you will get an email with a special link that instantly gives a year of Prime to whatever account opens the special link. If you click on the link and have an active Prime membership it will ask you if you want to convert the membership into a gift card for the amount paid for the Prime gift membership. If you paid tax for the Prime Gift then you will also get the tax back as a gift card.
That means there’s no reason to hold onto any physical Amazon gift cards or gift card balance in your account. Some people buy Amazon gift cards to meet the spend threshold on a card like Ink Cash. Rather than hold a gift card balance, you should use it to buy Prime Gift Memberships. The value of those will increase from $99 to $119 (plus tax where applicable) when the price of Prime goes up on 5/11. You can either save those gift memberships for your own Prime or to give to a friend, or you can always convert it back into a gift card on any Amazon account for the price paid.
It’s a no-brainer if you’re sitting on Amazon gift cards or an Amazon gift card account balance!
Read this post for the full details on Prime Gift Memberships.
How many years of $99 Prime Gift Membership will you lock in for?
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.
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35 Comments On "Have Amazon Gift Cards? Make Them More Valuable By Converting Them Now Into Flexible Prime Gift Memberships!"
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Can you convert them back into gift cards if you don’t have or want Prime?
Good question, I always want Prime 🙂
Anyone try it?
The fine print in the gift email has a link for redeeming it into gc if you dont want Prime
Nice!
You can get a one month of prime only and try it, so you don’t have to get a 3 months or yearly to find out….
Will it convert back to the price paid or to the current value of a prime membership?
Price paid.
For those who are grandfathered in for the old family plan, did it change yet where we can apply one of these ad it will auto renew?
Thanx in advance!
A DDFer reported that he got an Amazon rep to allow him to keep it with this method, but YMMV.
They applied a year credit and took it in advance?
No, they let it lapse and got them to add the grandfathered family plan.
Wow thats dangerous lol.
Thank you for your help!
Can u buy amazon gift cards online from staples or office depot. I can not find them
Nope, that’s why I said Office Max/Depot or Staples stores.
The Amazon, Amazon Kindle, and Amazon Kindle Unlimited gift cards from those stores all function as regular Amazon gift cards.
you can actually place your prime gift order at a later date amazon charges your card then
Can you use your “gift card balance” already redeemed on your account for prime gift memberships?
Sure!
what about student membership?
Click the read this first link.
Can you explain how they are worth 10%?
See the end of this post about using points as airline miles:
https://www.dansdeals.com/credit-cards/businesscreditcards/highest-public-offer-ever-earn-50000-point-signup-bonus-awesome-no-annual-fee-chase-ink-cash-card/
Thanks for this @Dan. My wife and i have 2 separate amazon accounts from before we got married. Hers is our main account. I had like $250 in amazon digital giftcards just sitting in my amazon account that i couldn’t/didn’t use for anything because i didn’t have prime on my account and wasn’t able to transfer the GC’s to my wife’s account, but now i can!
Nice!
Which supermarkets sell them?
Do you earn 5 points per dollar by buying amazon gc online from staples or office depot? Or only in store?
Only if you buy the gift cards using a Chase Ink business preferred, ink business plus, ink cash plus, ink bold or any other cards that give you 5x points at office depot or staples.
For those that have Giant eagle supermarkets, use the Freedom card this quarter for 5% plus earn fuel perks on Amazon gift cards.
Choose an amazon locker location in Nevada as your default address before purchasing. Will save you on taxes.
Thank you Dan! If my Prime membership is still good for another couple of months (I’m not even sure when it expires), can I buy it now and hold it for a couple of months until my current Prime membership expires? Or does the 12 month clock start ticking on the day I purchase it?
It starts when you redeem it not when you buy it.
I’m trying to understand how ppl buy on Amazon with GC’s & then don’t have Amex protections?
Was wondering the same…
So, if I my Chase Freedom is not in the US, I cannot qualify for 5-for-1, correct? Nothing available online?
Would the five points on every dollar work with the Chase Saphire card
What about a grandfathered family plan where I share my prime benefits with 4 other members of my family?