Which is the best card to use on Amazon.com purchases?

The Amazon Rewards Visa and Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature cards have become hot items for frequent Amazon shoppers, and for good reason. They are great cards that, for the most part, can’t be beat when it comes to earning cash back on Amazon purchases.

The Amazon Rewards Visa gives you 3% cash back on every Amazon purchase, and the Amazon Prime Visa Signature ups that ante, offering 5% cash back for Amazon Prime account holders.

You may be wondering: Which of these is the best card to use on Amazon purchases? For that matter, are there any other cards out there that could earn an even better rewards rate on Amazon purchases?

While the deck seems to be stacked clearly in favor of Amazon credit cards, there’s one alternative that may surprise you.

Comparing Amazon cards

Let’s start by comparing the regular Amazon card to the Amazon Prime card. While the 5% cash back rate on the Amazon Prime Visa Signature card seems to be the best way to go, this is not necessarily the case. The best option mostly boils down to your shopping habits on Amazon.

Here’s a breakdown of the two cards:

Amazon rewards card vs. Amazon Prime rewards card

	Amazon Rewards Visa*	Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature*
Rewards rate	3% cash back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases 2% cash back on gas, restaurant and drugstore purchases 1% cash back on general purchases	5% back on Amazon.com and Whole Foods purchases 2% back on restaurant, gas station and drugstore purchases 1% back on other purchases
Sign-up bonus	$60 Amazon.com gift card when you’re approved	$100 Amazon.com gift card when you’re approved
Annual fee	$0	$0
Estimated yearly rewards value ($1,325 monthly spend, including sign-up bonus)	$253	$225
Pros	No membership fee required Offers higher rate on Amazon purchases than most cards Easy to redeem your cash back	Highest rewards rate on Amazon purchases Easy to redeem your cash back Prime membership comes with valuable benefits, including free 2-day shipping
Cons	There are a few cards with a better overall cash back rate	Requires $119 Amazon Prime membership
Who should get this card?	People who spend less than $4,950 per year on Amazon purchases People who don’t want to commit to an Amazon Prime membership	Amazon Prime members People who value Amazon Prime services People who spend more than $99 per year on shipping qualified Amazon products People who spend more than $4,950 per year on Amazon purchases People who frequent Whole Foods

As you can see, though the Amazon Prime card offers a better cash back rate on Amazon purchases as well as a $100 gift card for new cardmembers, you also need to figure in the cost of Amazon Prime membership. This can lower the overall value of the Prime card for you, depending on your spending habits and how much you value Prime membership by itself.

Best for current and aspiring Amazon Prime members: Amazon Prime card

For current Amazon Prime members, it’s a no-brainer: 5% cash back with the Amazon Prime card is the way to go. Also, Prime membership comes with valuable benefits, such as free two-day shipping on eligible purchases, free streaming of movies and TV shows with Prime Video and Amazon Family discounts on diapers and baby items. Shelling out the fee for Prime membership and getting the Prime card is a good deal if you value these types of services.

Best if you spend more than $119 per year on Amazon shipping: Amazon Prime card

Amazon Prime comes with some awesome shipping benefits. Not only do you get free standard shipping on qualified Amazon purchases of any amount, but you also qualify for free two-day shipping and – in certain cities – free one-day, same-day and two-hour deliveries.

Amazon Prime free shipping

Two-Day Shipping	Free
Same-Day Delivery	Free in certain cities
Two-Hour Delivery	Free in eligible ZIP codes
One-Day Shipping	Free in certain cities
Saturday Shipping	Price varies by item size and weight – as low as $7.99 per item
No-Rush Shipping	Free
Standard Shipping (4-5 business days)	Free
Release-Date Delivery	Free

The convenience of getting expedited shipping on orders of any size is very valuable, and probably sufficient alone to justify the cost of a $119 fee for many Prime members.

However, if you are weighing shipping costs to the costs of Prime membership, note that free shipping only extends to qualified items (items that you see the Prime logo next to in your shopping cart). While this applies to a lot of items on Amazon, there are many items that it doesn’t apply to – e.g., items sold and shipped by outside vendors.

Also, be aware that Amazon already offers free standard shipping to non-Prime members for orders over a certain size. And, to compete with Walmart and Target, Amazon recently lowered the threshold for free shipping to $25 in qualified purchases.

In other words, you’ll need to do a close accounting of your shipping costs to see if the $119 Prime membership fee makes sense. Unless you frequently make small purchases from Amazon, Prime membership may not outweigh your shipping costs.

Best for Amazon shoppers who spend more than $5,950 per year: Amazon Prime card

For everyone else, the value breaks down to how much money you spend at Amazon on a yearly basis.

For cardholders purely interested in the value of the cash back rewards on the Amazon Prime card versus the cost of Prime membership, we figure that the magic number is $5,950 per year (roughly $496 per month). Here’s why: At $5,950 in spending, the amount of cash back that you can earn with the Amazon Prime card minus the cost of the annual membership fee equals the cash back that you can earn with the regular Amazon Visa card.

Here’s the math for you:

Amazon Visa card cash back	Amazon Prime card cash back
$5,950/year x 3% cash back = $178.50	$5,950/year x 5% cash back – $119 annual fee = $178.50

If you spend more than $5,950 on Amazon purchases per year, your Amazon Prime membership stands to net a better value for you. However, that’s a hefty amount of spending on Amazon! If $5,950 is too rich for your budget, the regular Amazon Visa may be the better way to go. 

For everyone else: The regular Amazon Visa card is a good deal

Though the Amazon Visa card doesn’t sport a flashy 5% cash back rate, it does offer a pretty good 3% cash back rate on Amazon purchases, which is still higher than most of the other best rewards cards. The card also offers a $60 Amazon gift certificate for signing up, the same seamless redemption options as the Amazon Prime card and many of the same purchase protections and Visa Signature benefits, without requiring you to commit to a Prime membership.

It’s a good deal, though there is a smattering of opportunities to do better than the card’s 3% cash back rate. Read on to see how.

Best for summer 2020: Chase Freedom card

Chase Freedom*
Where it comes out ahead: For the third quarter of 2020, you can’t beat the cash back rate the Chase Freedom offers on both Amazon.com and Whole Foods purchases, but it is only available for a limited time. Read full review	Rewards rate: 5% cash back on quarterly rotating categories on up to $1,500 in combined spending, upon enrollment 1% cash back on everything else Sign-up bonus: $200 if you spend $500 in first 3 months Annual fee: $0 Estimated yearly rewards value ($15,900 spend): $304

If you have a few big purchases to make from Amazon in the next couple months – but won’t get long term value out of a card designed to reward those purchases year-round – the Chase Freedom card can be a good alternative.

This competitive cash back card offers 5% back in rotating bonus categories that change each quarter. You must enroll to be eligible, but you’ll earn the high rate on up to $1,500 in purchases per quarter, then 1%. For the third quarter of 2020, that includes both Amazon.com and Whole Foods purchases. Bonus: It charges no annual fee.

This is a particularly good offer for those who have a few upcoming purchases or whose Prime membership fee will be due in the next three months. You can earn the highest rate on Amazon purchases currently available on the market, with the opportunity to earn rewards on different categories in the future, that might better suit your long-term spending habits.

Best for the holiday season: Discover it Cash Back