The Amazon Prime Visa, available exclusively to Amazon Prime members, offers its highest rate of cash back on purchases at Amazon. If you have Amazon Prime, this card should be in your wallet… or at least loaded as your default payment method on Amazon. The Prime Visa has no annual fee, but an Amazon Prime membership ($139/year) is required to qualify for the card.
Amazon Prime Visa at a glance
The Prime Visa offers 5% cash back rewards at most Amazon brands, plus Chase extended warranty and purchase protection, making it one of the best cards to use at Amazon.
Prime Visa Welcome Offer
Welcome offer: Get a $150 Amazon Gift Card instantly upon approval with an eligible Prime membership.
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Annual fee: $0
Rewards
- 5% on Amazon.com.
- 5% on Amazon Fresh online or in-store.
- 5% at Whole Foods Market.
- 5% on Chase Travel℠ purchases.
- 2% at gas stations.
- 2% at restaurants.
- 2% on local transit and commuting, including rideshare.
- 1% on other purchases.
Rewards are earned as cash back.
Benefits
Consumer insurance benefits
Travel insurance benefits
- Auto rental collision damage waiver.
- Baggage delay insurance.
- Lost luggage reimbursement.
- Travel accident insurance.
- Travel and emergency assistance.
Rates and Fees
- Annual fee: $0
- Foreign transaction fee: None
Prime Visa Review
Cards and Points Rating: 4.5/5.0
Read more about our star ratings.
The Amazon Prime Visa comes pretty close to being the ideal retail-branded credit card. Frankly, it’s the card that we wish more retailers would copy.
The card starts off strong with 5% cash back at Amazon, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods Market—and that’s cash. Not Amazon store credit. Not gift cards. Cash. We like it.
But the card also has both purchase protection and extended warranty protection—the two benefits that you’re likely to want on most things you purchase on Amazon.
Honestly, it’s not even worth suggesting where the card could be improved. The Prime Visa is so far ahead of other retail store cards that asking for more would be borderline unreasonable. The Prime Visa shouldn’t be your only card, but if you pay for Amazon Prime, the card should absolutely be in your (digital) wallet.
Likes
- 5% cash back at Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market.
- Extended warranty and purchase protection.
- No annual fee.
- Rewards can be redeemed for a statement credit or a cash credit to your payment account.
Dislikes
- Requires a paid membership to Amazon Prime to earn 5% rewards.
- Lackluster rewards outside of Amazon.
Using the Prime Visa for spending
Maximizing the rewards for spending on the Prime Visa are pretty simple. Use the card at Amazon, Whole Foods, and Amazon Fresh for every purchase and nowhere else. But here are our more specific recommendations:
Amazon, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods Market
You’ll earn 5% cash back rewards with your Prime subscription and enjoy purchase protection and extended warranty benefits. Given that, there’s probably rarely a reason to use another card at Amazon.
Chase Travel
Purchases made through Chase’s travel portal will earn 5% cash back. If you’re occasionally booking travel and aren’t invested in the other cards in the Chase ecosystem, this card is a good bet to use for these purchases.
Other Purchases
You’ll earn at most 2% cash back (at gas stations, restaurants, and on transit) on other purchases, so you can probably do better with another card back card.
My take on the Amazon Prime Visa
I have the Amazon Prime Visa and use it for my buyers club purchases, plus my personal Amazon.com purchases.
The card gives you a baseline 5% rewards on pretty much everything you purchase with Amazon. That makes it one of the best cards to use for Amazon.com even before you consider that you’re getting Chase’s extended warranty protection on all your purchases.
5% rewards is great, but you can often get 6%, 7%, or even 10% rewards using the card at Amazon.com. Most of the year, I can get 6% using my Amazon Prime Visa if I opt for slower shipping. On Prime Day and around the holidays, I frequently see opportunities to get 7% or up to 10% rewards in certain categories (like Kindle and Alexa devices.)
While the Amazon Prime Visa is a great choice for your Amazon (and Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market) purchases, you can easily find better cards to use on your non-Amazon purchases. Any 2% cash back card will match that Prime Visa’s earnings in most categories. And you can find cards that will give you much more in cash back rewards at gas stations and at restaurants.
Bottom line: If you have Amazon Prime, you should have the Amazon Prime Visa. Use it for all of your Amazon, Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh purchases. Use other cards for everything else.
Benefits of the Prime Visa
Here is a summary of the benefits offered with the Amazon Prime Visa card from Chase.
Travel insurance benefits
Cards targeted toward travelers often offer travel insurance benefits that can protect you when you are traveling away from home. Terms and restrictions apply to all benefits.
Car rental loss and damage Insurance – Car rental loss and damage insurance protects you against damage or theft to your rental vehicle. For coverage to apply, you need to reserve and pay for your vehicle using your card and decline your car rental company’s collision damage waiver.The coverage provided by your Prime Visa is secondary to your personal auto insurance. This means that you will be required to make a claim against your personal auto insurance before this policy will pay. Additional terms apply. See your card’s guide to benefits for details.
Baggage delay insurance – Baggage delay insurance can cover your essential purchases like toiletries and clothing when the baggage you checked with a common carrier, like an airline, is delayed. The Prime Visa covers up to $100 in expenses for 3 days for baggage delays over 6 hours.
Lost luggage reimbursement – Lost luggage reimbursement provides coverage to replace items that are lost or damaged while traveling on a common carrier, like an airline. Coverage is typically in excess of any reimbursement you receive from the carrier. The coverage you get with the Prime Visa includes $3,000 per passenger of coverage.
Travel accident insurance – Travel accident insurance typically covers you for things like accidental death or dismemberment when you are traveling. Policy terms vary, so see your card’s guide to benefits for details.
Consumer insurance benefits
Many cards offers consumer insurance benefits that can protect the things you buy. Terms and restrictions apply to all benefits.
Purchase protection – Purchase protection protects the things you buy with your card from damage or theft for a certain amount of time after you buy them. Your Prime Visa Purchase Protection benefit covers your new purchases for 120 days, up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.
Extended warranty – Extended warranty protection provides additional warranty coverage on items you purchase with your card. The extended warranty coverage of the Prime Visa extends the warranty of eligible items by one additional year, on warranties of 3 years or less when you purchase the items with your Prime Visa.
Who is Amazon credit card best for?
If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, the Amazon credit card should be in your wallet, full stop. The card earns 5% cash back rewards at Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods Market. This is the highest amount of uncapped rewards that you can get on a credit card on these purchases.
Outside of Amazon purchases, the Prime Visa doesn’t really offer much in the way of benefits or rewards. You’re probably better off with a card that offers category bonuses or flat-rate 2% cash back elsewhere.
Alternatives to the Prime Visa
If you’re looking for a card that earns excellent rewards on Amazon purchases, here are a few other cards to consider.
- The Amazon Business Prime American Express Card is a good alternative for small business owners. The card offers 5% or 90 day terms on U.S. purchase at Amazon.com, Amazon Business, AWS, and Whole Foods Market, but only on the first $120,000 in purchases each calendar year. Afterwards, you’ll earn 1% rewards. If you’re using Amazon Business or AWS services, this is probably a better alternative, but there are limited reasons to use this card.
- For the highest possible cash back on Amazon, you could use the U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards® Visa Signature® Card to get up to 6% on Amazon and another retailer you choose, on up to $1,500 in combined purchases each quarter.
- Amazon frequently is among the quarterly categories offered on the Chase Freedom Flex℠. If you collect Ultimate Rewards® points and getting more than 1 cent of value out of each of your points, switching to the Freedom Flex for the first $1,500 of Amazon purchases is a great move.
For more alternatives to the Prime Visa, check out the best cards to use at Amazon. If you want a better card to use at Whole Foods or Amazon Fresh, take a look at the best cards for grocery rewards.
