Tell me your Amazon Credit Card experience

[Major Tom]

Maj. Tom, get the card. Why turn down a 5% discount on your Amazon purchases?

And get over trying to maintain a credit score of 840-850. As I understand it, once you have a score of 780-800 you qualify for the best rates/maximum benefits. Anything above that is just overkill.

Thanks REW. You pushed me over the edge. I have decided to get the card the very next time I make an Amazon purchase which, based on my past history, will be happening in 3,2,1.....

My buying a campervan was the best thing that happened to Jeff Bezos

 

[Sojourner]

I was considering getting the AMZN Prime card a while back, but decided against it due to the relatively small sign-up bonus and ongoing cashback rewards. I figured it would take me nearly five years to rack up even $300 in cashback relative to using a standard 2% cash rewards card like the Citi DoubleCash (my primary card). So, for me, the AMZN Prime 5% card didn't make the cut.

I tend to look for cards with much larger sign-up bonuses, like the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards card I recently acquired. Within 12 months, that card will end up netting me over $1,000 in free travel on SW flights.

I might apply for the AMZN Prime card at some point down the road, if they ever offer a larger sign-up bonus, or if there aren't other more "rewarding" cards out there waiting to give me lots more cashback or travel rewards within the first year.

 

[cathy63]

In my online chase amazon account, when I click on the Amazon transaction detail, it displays the Amazon order number. This is how I link the card purchases to the orders. If I click on the order number it will directly link to the Amazon online order information.

I just checked my paper bill, and it also shows the amazon order number on the bill.

This doesn't work as well when there are two authorized users on the card though. There's no way to tell which Amazon account placed which orders.

 

[jollystomper]

This doesn't work as well when there are two authorized users on the card though. There's no way to tell which Amazon account placed which orders.

This is why we have 2 separate cards, one for each of us. Easier to track and no real additional effort, and adds a degree of backup in case one card is compromised (which has not happened yet).

I also wonder why it matters who ordered what with the same account... on our joint cards there is never a question to who ordered what due to our spending/shopping interests and habits.

 

[cathy63]

This is why we have 2 separate cards, one for each of us. Easier to track and no real additional effort, and adds a degree of backup in case one card is compromised (which has not happened yet).

I also wonder why it matters who ordered what with the same account... on our joint cards there is never a question to who ordered what due to our spending/shopping interests and habits.

Oh it doesn't matter to me at all. I don't even try to figure out which charge was for which items. I was just curious when you said that you could click on the order number to see what it was for, so I tried it and happened to pick one that wasn't in my own Amazon account.

 

[Cobra9777]

If you review purchases on the Chase app, there is a link to the Amazon website order history with a description, pic, and shipping status. That’s more detail than any other card statement or web summary I have.

In my online chase amazon account, when I click on the Amazon transaction detail, it displays the Amazon order number. This is how I link the card purchases to the orders. If I click on the order number it will directly link to the Amazon online order information...

I don't get it...

When I go to the Chase website, and go to transaction details, I see the Amazon order number as a link. But when I click, it just takes me to the top of the first page of my order history, which displays my most recent order. It does NOT link to the actual order number I clicked, nor does it display the page with the item I purchased. It's just a simple link to the top of my Amazon order history. I clicked on several different items from several different months. All the links took me to the exact same place, which is not helpful at all.

What am I missing?

 

[jollystomper]

Oh it doesn't matter to me at all. I don't even try to figure out which charge was for which items. I was just curious when you said that you could click on the order number to see what it was for, so I tried it and happened to pick one that wasn't in my own Amazon account.

Okay. Perhaps I was thinking more from an automation perspective that one could easily distinguish which account by programmatically capturing and parsing the data via the account number, then totaling by account number for the charges in a bill. The programmer in me refuses to retire .

 

[mpeirce]

Okay. Perhaps I was thinking more from an automation perspective that one could easily distinguish which account by programmatically capturing and parsing the data via the account number, then totaling by account number for the charges in a bill. The programmer in me refuses to retire .

Me too - I always wanted store to itemize the credit card bill. Then I could parse out the, say, Costco bill: $170 food, $30 garden supplies, etc.

Apparently not something they want to provide us...

 

[target2019]

So many credit cards, so many colors. Keeps us busy and happy!

Can't walk away from 5%. Just can't.

 

[Katsmeow]

I started with the Synchrony card which was fine. But, switched to the Visa 5% with Chase which is superior in my opinion as I can get the 5% back as cash back. Also that card does give me 2% back at restaurants, gas stations and drugstores and 1 T back elsewhere. I don't use it for that purpose.

On the Amazon Prime Visa card I always get the cash back. Never use it the reward to buy stuff on Amazon. If you do that you don't get a 5% discount on that purchase. You want to take your cash back (you can apply to your bill) then just purchase normally on Amazon itself. Don't use reward to do it.

I have cards that I use to maximize rewards:

1. Amazon Prime Visa - 5% Amazon with Prime Membership
2. Amex Blue Cash Preferred - 6% grocery stores (not Walmart or Target) and 6% on some streaming services
3. Chase Freedom - 3% on restaurants and drugstores
4. Fidelity Visa - 2% on everything
5. Apple - 3% on Apple stuff

It might seem hard to manage these but it isn't. The Apple card basically gives us 3% on iphone and Apple Watch purchases and anything else we buy there.

Amazon Prime Visa we use all the time because we buy a lot from Amazon

Amex is used for groceries and some streaming stuff (HBOMax for example).

Chase Freedom I use for restaurants

Everything else is the Fidelity Visa (does require depositing the case back to my Fidelity cash management account)

 

[jazz4cash]

I don't get it...



When I go to the Chase website, and go to transaction details, I see the Amazon order number as a link. But when I click, it just takes me to the top of the first page of my order history, which displays my most recent order. It does NOT link to the actual order number I clicked, nor does it display the page with the item I purchased. It's just a simple link to the top of my Amazon order history. I clicked on several different items from several different months. All the links took me to the exact same place, which is not helpful at all.



What am I missing?

I stand corrected. You are not missing anything but it is very helpful to me. All 16 of my orders for the current year are displayed in chronological order on two pages. It did not link anything for prior year orders so I had to search by order date.

 

[audreyh1]

I started with the Synchrony card which was fine. But, switched to the Visa 5% with Chase which is superior in my opinion as I can get the 5% back as cash back. Also that card does give me 2% back at restaurants, gas stations and drugstores and 1 T back elsewhere. I don't use it for that purpose.

On the Amazon Prime Visa card I always get the cash back. Never use it the reward to buy stuff on Amazon. If you do that you don't get a 5% discount on that purchase. You want to take your cash back (you can apply to your bill) then just purchase normally on Amazon itself. Don't use reward to do it.

I take my Synchrony Amazon Store Card rewards as automatic credit on my next statement, but it’s also available before that for use against purchases. I don’t see any difference. It was the same with Chase.

I have the Costco Citi VISA giving me better rewards in dining, hotels and gas, and the Fidelity VISA giving 2% on everything else, so we never used the other Chase card features.

 

[Katsmeow]

I take my Synchrony Amazon Store Card rewards as automatic credit on my next statement, but it’s also available before that for use against purchases. I don’t see any difference. It was the same with Chase.

I have the Costco Citi VISA giving me better rewards in dining, hotels and gas, and the Fidelity VISA giving 2% on everything else, so we never used the other Chase card features.

Yes I understand you can do a statement credit with the store card. I mostly got rid of it because it was a PITA to use. At the time I had to go to one place on Amazon to get to the account, then that sent me to another login so I had to log in twice. I never understood it. I also didn't like their interface (this has been a couple of years so maybe it has changed).

We already bank at Chase so managing the Visa card through Chase was very easy for me.

 

[audreyh1]

I had the direct login bookmarked.

 

[Time2]

OP here, Great!, I applied for the Visa Chase Credit card. And I was denied.
I went through and unfroze two of the big three credit bureaus, the third didn't recognize who I was. I don't know If I didn't give the un-freeze enough time to work, if it was the third Frozen company they checked, or, if the didn't like that my income was the same as the non taxable income column. Although, I paid zero tax, (Capital gains under $80k) that may not be the same as non-taxable. They will send me a letter letting my know why within 30 days. Ya win some ya lose some.


Edit: probably should add, last I checked my credit score was 785. Maybe not as high as it could be, but I just don't use credit. I don't think I have had a loan since the early 90s. As in car loan, mortgage, boat, etc.

 

[jollystomper]

I don't get it...

When I go to the Chase website, and go to transaction details, I see the Amazon order number as a link. But when I click, it just takes me to the top of the first page of my order history, which displays my most recent order. It does NOT link to the actual order number I clicked, nor does it display the page with the item I purchased. It's just a simple link to the top of my Amazon order history. I clicked on several different items from several different months. All the links took me to the exact same place, which is not helpful at all.

What am I missing?

I don't know what to say. It brings me to the page of the order. Now, I do have additional "hooks" into my browser environment for various automation tasks that may be aiding things and giving me a different behavior than what is "standard".

 

[jollystomper]

I don't get it...

When I go to the Chase website, and go to transaction details, I see the Amazon order number as a link. But when I click, it just takes me to the top of the first page of my order history, which displays my most recent order. It does NOT link to the actual order number I clicked, nor does it display the page with the item I purchased. It's just a simple link to the top of my Amazon order history. I clicked on several different items from several different months. All the links took me to the exact same place, which is not helpful at all.

What am I missing?

Followup: I found another method that may be helpful (but perhaps more so from a programming/automation perspective).

On Amazon, go to your account. Under "ordering and shopping preferences", select "download order reports". You can then download a comma separated values (csv) text file for you orders for the time range you specify. The file will contain your orders, the items within each order, the item category, the cost and tax for each item, etc. You can load this into Excel or Google sheets (or any program that can handle csv files) to view it easily.

So at least now you have a report (though not online) that you can produce when you get your chase bill (or whenever you desire) to cross reference to your credit card report. From an automation perspective it is very easy to generate and cross-reference to the chase bill.

 

[Cobra9777]

Followup: I found another method that may be helpful (but perhaps more so from a programming/automation perspective).

On Amazon, go to your account. Under "ordering and shopping preferences", select "download order reports". You can then download a comma separated values (csv) text file for you orders for the time range you specify. The file will contain your orders, the items within each order, the item category, the cost and tax for each item, etc. You can load this into Excel or Google sheets (or any program that can handle csv files) to view it easily.

So at least now you have a report (though not online) that you can produce when you get your chase bill (or whenever you desire) to cross reference to your credit card report. From an automation perspective it is very easy to generate and cross-reference to the chase bill.

Thanks very much for that post. I've used those order history reports in the past for this exact purpose. A bunch of my old reports are still listed there. But at some point last year, Amazon pulled that functionality. I remember calling customer service to ask if it had moved to a different location on their site. They said no, it had been removed. I'm certainly glad to see that it's back now.

It is definitely helpful, though still far from perfect. For example, dates on the report are "Order Date" and "Ship Date". Neither of those match the transaction date on the Chase statement. The ship date is typically within a day or so. So I always add a couple days to the start and end date of the report. But I still had an item on the report that had been delayed 2 weeks and was not on the statement at all.

Also, amounts frequently do not match. Multiple items on the same order have to be added together. That's simple enough by subtotaling on order number. But there are other mismatches caused by subscribe and save discounts, coupons, gift card, etc. The report shows the gross amount before these reductions. We get a LOT of subscribe and save items, so none of those amounts matched the Chase statement. It is possible to identify these discounted items because there's a field called "Payment Instrument Type" which includes the word "Gift Certificate" on all such items.

Anyway, it is WAY faster than scrolling through the normal order list pages. But still a bit of a hassle for us, mainly because we buy so much on Amazon. And I want it classified correctly in our expense tracking, which obviously requires some manual intervention when every single line item on the statement comes in as just "Amazon."

 

[Gkk2001]

I also have the Amazon card because the free $100 was hard to pass on when I went to purchase an item. I too want to limit cards but trust myself to manage this one well. I find Synchrony bank to be quite slow when making payments but learned to live with that.

You are right, unfortunetly Equifax is the outfit to deal with to unfreeze credit. They are a bunch of crooks. I despise dealing with them.

 

[CoolRich59]

I have the Amazon card where I get 5% back on all Amazon and Whole Foods purchases. I only use it for Amazon and Whole Foods but 5% is a great deal. I buy a lot on Amazon so I get a monthly credit that I can use toward Amazon purchases. I’m happy with it.

Same here. It was not difficult to get: temporary lift of my credit freeze, apply, get approved, and I was good to go.

Like Ready, I only use it at Amazon. The card number is loaded into my Amazon account and the physical card sits in a drawer.

 

[wildsun]

I buy A LOT at Amazon. I buy for our home and personal use, I buy things for a business I own, and I buy lots of stuff for 2 vacation rentals that are kept pretty busy on the Oregon Coast. Plus I am mostly vegetarian and I was a regular shopper at Whole Foods until Amazon bought it and ruined it.

I got the card about 18 months ago. There are not many 5% back cards out there and it was nice to find one that would reward me for doing what I do anyways. At Amazon you can enter a PO # for your purchases, so I enter DMC, STL or TCV as the PO#, depending on whether I am buying for personal use, business use or the rentals.

My monthly cash back varys from $60 to $120 / month - which I apply to future personal purchases. I estimate my cash back is up around $1000 per year.

And you can go to Amazon and generate a report sorted by PO#, which provides me documentation needed to get tax deductions for purchases made for the business or the rentals.

Amazon has more than one type of card. There's a Visa/MC version and an Amex, a personal card and a business card version, for example. I think there are some that offer other types of rewards, etc.

 

[wildsun]

I buy A LOT at Amazon. I buy for our home and personal use, I buy things for a business I own, and I buy lots of stuff for 2 vacation rentals that are kept pretty busy on the Oregon Coast. Plus I am mostly vegetarian and I was a regular shopper at Whole Foods until Amazon bought it and ruined it.

I got the card about 18 months ago. There are not many 5% back cards out there and it was nice to find one that would reward me for doing what I do anyways. At Amazon you can enter a PO # for your purchases, so I enter DMC, STL or TCV as the PO#, depending on whether I am buying for personal use, business use or the rentals. I only use the card to purchase from Amazon or other brands owned by Amazon.

My monthly cash back varys from $60 to $120 / month - which I use to get credits only on personal purchases. I estimate my cash back is up around $1000 per year.

And you can go to Amazon and generate a report sorted by PO#, which provides me documentation needed to get tax deductions for purchases made for the business or the rentals.

Amazon has more than one type of card. There's a Visa/MC version and an Amex, a personal card and a business card version, for example. I think there are some that offer other types of rewards, etc.

 

[troutnut1]

Have had the Chase card for years and am happy. As others have said, it can be a pain to reconcile,,,BUT I only use this for Amazon purchases so its way better than having these charges mixed in with everything else on another card. Another tip I learned here is to not make additional purchases with the credit. Use the credit to pay down the card balance or a bill credit. You won’t get 5% off on things you buy with the credit. I have the freeze/unfreeze hassle and a very high credit score. Lately I unlocked them and may leave them unlocked. The hassle created by the lock can be almost as bad as having bad credit.

 

[cb2008]

Whole Foods Savings

I live in Asheville NC, where we are lucky have 3 Whole Foods stores, a Trader Joe’s, and a coop as well as several traditional groceries and numerous farmers markets. So we can easily “ eat healthy”. I enjoy going to Whole Foods on a weekly basis to look for the yellow on sale specials ( additional 10% off of sale price for prime members) and the prime sales (usually a 30% discount)to stock up on our favorites as well as trying items I would not have purchased at full price. I loaded my Amazon/Whole Foods card to my Apple Pay so I can just scan and pay.
The discounts from only a months grocery trip to Whole Foods covers my annual prime fee!

 

[Time2]

OP here, I got the letter from Chase about my denial of an Amazon Prime card.
"Our decision was based on the following reason(s)
Your Credit report reflects too few open credit card accounts
Insufficient balance in deposit and investment accounts with US"


My bolding.


Both true, I only have one credit card with an $11k limit and usually less than a $500 balance, (Paid monthly, is that the problem?)
I don't have an account with them. My credit score is above 780, I have no late payments and plenty of excess income.




Now it has become a challenge. What methods could I use to get the card?


I could without disrupting anything, move $30k into a Chase savings account and apply for a Chase CC. (temporarily, until I get the card I want)


Any other ideas?