Amazon Prime credit card quandary

[DrRoy]

We have a few cards and like having the Amazon card among them.

 

[hotwired]

Hello, I see here a lot of VERY SMART PEOPLE!

I heard Amex cards aren't accepted in many places, anyone knows why? I'd love to get the 6% - is it only for grocery stores AND year round? Or like Chase, changing merchant categories quarterly? The latter is a bother, no? I opened a checking acct. at Citibank, and ordered that 2% card but….they declined it, yet my Credit Score is 815 Excellent just received today. To know the reason, I'd have to jump through many hoops as it happens nowadays by phone, so I'll cancel my account lol!

As to Amazon, I tried Prime for a few months but I don't buy enough to make it worth, I am alone, rarely need fast shipping, don’t have time to watch videos unless I need them, etc. Items are mostly overpriced, a difference of up to $6!!! I buy at Whole Foods but have to walk too much to find their Prime items which are only few. One item I wanted to buy didn't look good compared to the same non-Prime. I will discontinue it. Someone said they also give 5% on purchases. Anybody knows how?

As to Gift Cards, when I buy them would I get 5% or near, on them? And then I could pay with them when I purchase items and get another percentage on top? Must I pay with the Gift Cards in the same store? Or in any other store, etc.? Do the Gift Cards have a deadline?

Any ideas anyone on my 3 paragraphs above? Thank you!

P.S. As to small groceries (not supermarkets), I'm never sure if a CC covers them. Asking them didn't help. Did anyone here ever wonder it?

I personally think getting that Amex with the 6% grocery category is VERY smart. I can't get my DW to jump on board. She gets very overwhelmed with that stuff, but her card is the BOA 3-2-1 gas, grocery, everything else, so it's not a huge sacrifice (also, all our groceries are FREE for the 3rd quarter anyway, with the aforementioned Chase Sapphire Reserve)

Amex is not accepted in all places because they charge the merchant more than visa or mastercard. So if you don't mind the added headache of having a visa handy for thsoe times, it makes sense. Amex tends to work well with Delta Airlines as well, if you use them.

 

[cathy63]

I heard Amex cards aren't accepted in many places, anyone knows why? I'd love to get the 6% - is it only for grocery stores AND year round? Or like Chase, changing merchant categories quarterly?

Lots of places don't accept Amex because it costs them more than accepting Visa. The Amex Blue Cash Reward gives 6% on the first $6000 you spend on groceries per year, so it depends how much you buy.

As to Amazon, I tried Prime for a few months but I don't buy enough to make it worth, I am alone, rarely need fast shipping, don’t have time to watch videos unless I need them, etc. Items are mostly overpriced, a difference of up to $6!!! I buy at Whole Foods but have to walk too much to find their Prime items which are only few. One item I wanted to buy didn't look good compared to the same non-Prime. I will discontinue it. Someone said they also give 5% on purchases. Anybody knows how?

As to Gift Cards, when I buy them would I get 5% or near, on them? And then I could pay with them when I purchase items and get another percentage on top? Must I pay with the Gift Cards in the same store? Or in any other store, etc.? Do the Gift Cards have a deadline?

Any ideas anyone on my 3 paragraphs above? Thank you!

Amazon gives 5% to Prime members who use the Amazon Credit Card or Amazon Store Card at Amazon or Whole Foods. They give 3% to non-Prime members who use one of those two cards. The 5%/3% applies to purchasing gift cards at Amazon also. You don't get any additional discount when you use the gift cards -- they're just normal cards that you have to use at the store they go with. For example, if you buy a $100 Starbucks card at Amazon using your Amazon Credit Card and you are a Prime member, you will get 500 points back, which you can use for $5 off your next Amazon purchase. You will get $100 worth of food and merchandise when you use the card at Starbucks.

If you don't find Prime worth it, and you don't like the prices at Amazon or Whole Foods, these cards are probably not a good idea for you.

P.S. As to small groceries (not supermarkets), I'm never sure if a CC covers them. Asking them didn't help. Did anyone here ever wonder it?

For small non-grocery stores where you can also buy some food, it depends on how each one is setup with the credit card companies, but usually they do not fall in the grocery category.

 

[Rosedala]

I personally think getting that Amex with the 6% grocery category is VERY smart. I can't get my DW to jump on board. She gets very overwhelmed with that stuff, but her card is the BOA 3-2-1 gas, grocery, everything else, so it's not a huge sacrifice (also, all our groceries are FREE for the 3rd quarter anyway, with the aforementioned Chase Sapphire Reserve)

Amex is not accepted in all places because they charge the merchant more than visa or mastercard. So if you don't mind the added headache of having a visa handy for thsoe times, it makes sense. Amex tends to work well with Delta Airlines as well, if you use them.

Tank you for the good explanation on BOA hotwire! Then, actually the 6% is similar give and take to when you get 5% merchants quarterly give and take, no? I don’t use gas and very little of everything else like flying (even less under the pandemic) but my biggest purchases are veggies and fruits plus grains and beans (vegan since the 70s when nobody, including myself, knew the meaning of the word, lol!!)

Thanks for posts like yours, I now feel more comfortable deciding on which cards to use and how. Thanks again!

 

[Rosedala]

Lots of places don't accept Amex because it costs them more than accepting Visa. The Amex Blue Cash Reward gives 6% on the first $6000 you spend on groceries per year, so it depends how much you buy.

Amazon gives 5% to Prime members who use the Amazon Credit Card or Amazon Store Card at Amazon or Whole Foods. They give 3% to non-Prime members who use one of those two cards. The 5%/3% applies to purchasing gift cards at Amazon also. You don't get any additional discount when you use the gift cards -- they're just normal cards that you have to use at the store they go with. For example, if you buy a $100 Starbucks card at Amazon using your Amazon Credit Card and you are a Prime member, you will get 500 points back, which you can use for $5 off your next Amazon purchase. You will get $100 worth of food and merchandise when you use the card at Starbucks.

If you don't find Prime worth it, and you don't like the prices at Amazon or Whole Foods, these cards are probably not a good idea for you.

For small non-grocery stores where you can also buy some food, it depends on how each one is setup with the credit card companies, but usually they do not fall in the grocery category.

Hello and thank you Cathy63 for your explanation, I can see now that BOA 6% is not for me, too bad. Also thanks for deciphering the matters of buying Gift Cards. So if you get interest on GCs but not on purchasing with them at Amazon and Whole Foods, with Amazon cards...where is the extra benefit? Sorry to be so obtuse on these matters.

Thanks to your kind advice I’ve decided Prime isn’t for me. Using their 3% should do it for the few items I buy from them. In addition, I use Chase and Discover for those quarterly five percenters when they cover vegan foods lol! Also TD Bank offers all the time (not quarterly) 3% on restaurants and 2% on groceries.

Other than WFs which I know are covered as groceries, I buy in small stores (don’t know in which category they are) where they mostly sell very fresh veggies and fruits and they're closer to home. That’s why I never know whether CCs consider them groceries!

Anyway, a big thank you for helping clarifying much about CCs!

 

[mageedge]

Chase has been doing some tasty offers during covid times.
I got a 4% on everything else(5% Amazon) offer on the Amazon card good for 6 months. Nice boost for Property Tax payment next month!
Freedom Unlimited and Freedom Flex are currently offering 5% on groceries for the first year. (plus a $200 opening bonus after $500 spend).All are no fee cards.
I replaced our AMEX BCP with a Freedom Unlimited. Amex does 6% on up to $6000 but has a $95 annual fee so, effectively,about a 4.4% card. The Chase points can be transferred to Sapphire Reserve for an effective 7.5% return.
I should add , despite the 50% boost,it'll be hard to justify the Sapphire Reserve annual fee next year unless and until unrestricted travel is back on the horizon.

 

[ERhoosier]

cathy63 said it all.
"If you don't find Prime worth it, and you don't like the prices at Amazon or Whole Foods, these cards are probably not a good idea for you."

Chasing the overall best CC deals is a separate topic, and one with HUGE regional/individual variables.

 

[SunnyOne]

Something to perhaps keep in mind if this matters to you: Typically credit cards with banks like Chase, Amex etc....offer a reasonable amount of customer service, particularly in merchant disputes and the like. I have found that Synchrony (the AMZ card) operates less like a bank and more like an affiliate of Amazon, so they are not helpful (at all in my experience) with respect to disputes or problems. They will side with Amazon over the customer in this regard.

 

[Rosedala]

cathy63 said it all.
"If you don't find Prime worth it, and you don't like the prices at Amazon or Whole Foods, these cards are probably not a good idea for you."

Chasing the overall best CC deals is a separate topic, and one with HUGE regional/individual variables.

I agree. Also I don't have much time to chase after CC best deals, especially since they aren't extraordinary these days...

 

[Rosedala]

Something to perhaps keep in mind if this matters to you: Typically credit cards with banks like Chase, Amex etc....offer a reasonable amount of customer service, particularly in merchant disputes and the like. I have found that Synchrony (the AMZ card) operates less like a bank and more like an affiliate of Amazon, so they are not helpful (at all in my experience) with respect to disputes or problems. They will side with Amazon over the customer in this regard.

Hi, it would matter to me if it came to a dispute, thanks a lot. But so far when I find something wrong, I call Amazon directly (as much as I hate using the phones nowadays) and they always fix it to satisfaction...with only one exception - sometimes they answer from the Philippines or Nigeria or whatever and I have a hell of a time understanding their speech, lol!

Thanks again. < Adela

 

[Major Tom]

This thread persuaded me to apply for the Amazon Prime Chase card. My credit is frozen with all 3 bureaus so, over the weekend, I enacted a temporary lift on the freeze with all 3. A few hours later, I checked on Amazon to see if I prequalified, and got the message that they were unable to access my credit report. I tried again the next day (yesterday) and got the same message. Puzzling.

There is a Reddit thread on this. Several people (some of whom did not have freezes on their accounts with the bureaus) experienced the same thing yet, on submitting an application, were approved. I plan to wait until tomorrow to make the application. I see no reason why they wouldn't give it to me, with a FICO score of 840. I'm a little concerned with how a 4th credit card will affect my FICO score in the short term, but am interested to see if I can get it back up to 840 in time.

 

[Sunset]

Did you unfreeze before applying for the card ?



I found I had to do this or my application failed on other types of cards before I could unfreeze. They are quick to give credit.



I would not worry about any drop in credit score, I have a bunch of credit cards, around 6 and a high score.

 

[Major Tom]

Did you unfreeze before applying for the card ?



I found I had to do this or my application failed on other types of cards before I could unfreeze. They are quick to give credit.



I would not worry about any drop in credit score, I have a bunch of credit cards, around 6 and a high score.

I did unfreeze all 3 accounts, and waited several hours before trying the prequalification. When it failed, I tried again the next day. I'm going to submit an application tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes. I hope/expect to be approved.

That's encouraging to know about your number of CC's and high credit score. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Sunset]

I would phone their help line to ask about the failure , rather than continue to repeatedly apply.



It may already be approved, just the message was wrong, or the phone call can fix the issue.

 

[Major Tom]

As it turns out, I needn't have worried. This morning, I tried another pre-qualification. Pre-qualifications don't impact one's credit score, as they are "soft enquiries". I received the message that I had exceeded the number of attempts. From previous experience a few days earlier, 24 hours seems to be the required period between successive attempts, and it had been a few hours under that.

Anyway, I decided to trust what I had read in the Reddit thread, and go ahead with the application. I did, and about 20 or 30 seconds later, was approved for the Prime Rewards Card (not the Store card). It has an initial limit of $5K, and a full limit of $9K when the card arrives, based on my FICO score of 840, and a declared annual income of $30K. My actual income is $27,600, but I figured I'd round it up to the next 5K increment.

Immediately, my FICO score with Experian dropped from 840 to an abysmal 828. How am I ever going to manage? I imagine it will climb slowly back up, though the difference between 828 and 840 makes no practical difference. However, I'm a numbers person and, to quote some rapper, I like big numbers and I cannot lie

Thanks for the input. Now for a cuppa coffee, and then to reinstate the credit freezes with all 3 bureaus. Who knows if I'll ever need to lift the freeze again. Could be another 10 or 15 years!

 

[Sunset]

When I do a credit unfreeze for applying for credit cards. I pick the temporary unfreeze. So my credit automatically refreezes again after the short time period.



I think the shortest time I could pick for at least one of them was 24 hours. But I figure the odds of someone pretending to me at that time out of a few years is small.

 

[Major Tom]

I did the temporary unfreeze too. I should have been more clear. Transunion made it very easy to cancel the temporary unfreeze as soon as my credit had been approved. Equifax required that I specify a date after today (so I picked tomorrow). Experian wouldn't allow me to alter the temporary freeze that is already in place. I will attempt to get hold of them on the phone. If that is unsuccessful, I will just wait for the temporary unfreeze to expire in a few days.

My initial temporary unfreezes were for just 24 hours, but I extended them for a few more days. I won't expand on the the story of why, as it's a little convoluted. However, it has to do with the initial pre-qualifications being turned down, and my subsequent thinking that the temporary unfreezes hadn't yet gone into effect (which turned out not to be true).

I think the shortest time I could pick for at least one of them was 24 hours. But I figure the odds of someone pretending to me at that time out of a few years is small.

I agree. I felt somewhat vulnerable lifting the freeze. Then I thought of the many years I had spent previously, with no freezes, and no problems. Compared to that, the risk of an unfreeze for a day or two seems small.