Top Picks
The Point Calculator's top picks for best credits cards to use shopping on Amazon.com are:
- Chase Amazon Credit Cards
- Citi Double Cash Card
- AMEX Blue Business Plus Card
- Discover IT / Chase Freedom Flex
Listed below are details on why I consider the selected cards to be great options for earning rewards with Amazon.
Chase Amazon Credit Cards
Chase offers a total of two Amazon credit cards that you can use to earn Amazon Points. Those cards are the Chase Amazon Card and Chase Amazon Prime Card. Which card you have depends on whether or not you have Amazon Prime. Those with Amazon Prime will earn 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods Market purchases and those without Prime will earn 3% back on both. If you have Amazon Prime already, you'll end up with the Chase Amazon Prime Card which is great. If you don't have Prime and you're thinking of getting Prime just for the 5% back, you'll want to make sure that you spend at least $500 a month on Amazon which is where the break even point is across the Prime and non-Prime version. Of course you'll also want to consider the extra benefits that comes with being a Prime member as well.
Citi Double Cash Card
The Citi Double Cash Card earns 2% cash back on all purchases and has no annual fee. While this does not offer as much of a return as the Chase Amazon credit cards, you'll be able to earn a 2% return across all of your purchases so you're not stuck earning bonus rewards spending specifically with Amazon and Whole Food Market. Another plus to this card is that you can convert your earned cash back into Citi ThankYou Points and if you have the Citi ThankYou Premier or Citi Prestige Card, you can transfer those points to a handful of airline frequent flyer programs.
AMEX Blue Business Plus Card
The Blue Business Plus Card is commonly seen in many top credit card lists because of the large amount of value it offers. The card earns 2 Membership Rewards Points per $1 spent on the first $50,000 in purchases made during the year. This gives you a 2% return when you redeem points towards airfare through the American Express Travel Portal. You can also transfer Membership Rewards Points to large amount of airline and hotel programs to top off your favorite frequent flyer accounts.
Bank of America Cash Rewards Mastercard
The Bank of America Cash Rewards Mastercard is one of the best options if you have money to invest with them and their partners. You can earn up to a 75% bonus investing which will allow you to earn up to 5.25% back on any category that you choose from a list of eight in which online shopping (e.g. Amazon.com) is one of those categories. The table below lists out the bonuses you can obtain with a banking relationship or by having investments.
Tier | Balance Requirement | Bonus |
---|---|---|
None | Checking/Savings Account | 10% Bonus |
Gold | $20k to <$50k | 25% Bonus |
Platinum | $50k to <$100k | 50% Bonus |
Platinum Honors | $100k+ | 75% Bonus |
Discover IT / Chase Freedom Flex
The Discover IT and Chase Freedom Flex both feature quarterly rotating categories that earns 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in spend during any given quarter. Both cards typically feature Amazon.com at least once during the year. The quarter in which this happens is usually the 4th quarter (Oct-Dec). That makes both of these cards a solid option if you primarily shop on Amazon during the holiday season since you'll be able to earn 5% cash back across these two no-annual fee credit cards.
Best Cards By Spend Calculator
The Best Credit Cards By Spend Calculator will find the best credit cards based on the spend and selected filter options. Results will be sorted by net return which is the average value of the total rewards earned, plus annual credits, and minus annual fees. For any of the results listed, you can click on 'Rewards Calculator' to calculate more accurate results. You'll be able to enter spend for as many categories as you want, toggle annual fees, add authorized users, specific elite status and memberships, incorporate sign up and welcome bonus, view rewards as if you transferred them to partners, and much more.