Amazon Prime’s latest perk is a new Rewards Visa Card with 5% back
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
There's also the 'Amazon Rewards Visa Card' which offers 2% back at gas stations, drugstores and restaurants (all other purchases are 1% back).
So unless I'm mistaken, this just looks like it combines both benefits into one card.
I will add that typically this perk does NOT apply to foreign ATM cash withdrawals. Only to regular purchases made with the card. Taking out cash using a credit card is always an expensive proposition, doubly so abroad.
I use my regular ATM card to get cash. There's still a (relatively high) fee but it's still probably better than the currency exchange places and, at least in Western Europe, I don't need cash that often any longer.
Are you in the US? If so there's no reason to pay any fees.
Get a Fidelity Cash Management Account and/or a Charles Schwab Investor Checking Account. Both are free without any minimum balance requirements. Neither charge a currency conversion fee and both reimburse all ATM fees.
Personally, I use Fidelity. I couldn't be happier with their products (I also have an IRA and credit card with them) and service. I'm not affiliated, just a happy customer.
I should mention that Fidelity does have a foreign transaction fee on DEBIT purchases, I don't know if Schwab does or not. But I don't use my debit card for debit purchases, just at ATMs, so that doesn't apply to me.
Schwab: all my ATM fees paid, 200 commission free ETFs, and target date mutual funds with an expense ratio of .13% if you dont want to balance a portfolio once a year. https://www.csimfunds.com/secure/file/P-9430864
Chase: 3-5% cash back on Amazon, 1-2% elsewhere, can take it as a statement credit.
http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/banking_lending/checking...
See footnote 6.
Been planning on trying it out the next time I go back to Canada as a way of transferring small amounts of money between Canada and the US for free.
> Amazon says that it will upgrade current Rewards Visa Signature card members with eligible Prime memberships to the new card, but they’ll be able to take advantage of the benefits immediately — even before the card arrives
Now this. I wish there was a way to upgrade (even forfeit $70 gift card promo bonus). Instead it seems difficult since the store card was Synchrony bank and the new Prime Rewards card uses Chase bank.
Now I have two Amazon cards. Looks like the store card will sit unused since the credit system we live in frowns upon closing credit lines, as I understand it.
Unless it's your oldest account it's not going to hurt your credit to close it. It will still age for 10 years under the FICO 8 algorithm.
I close cards right and left and my score isn't affected by it.
FICO 8 calculates "average age of accounts" as total months of all accounts on your credit report (both open and closed) from the open dates to the present, divided by the number of all accounts on your report. "Average age of accounts" is what they use in their scoring algorithm. They also factor in "age of oldest account" in their scoring algorithm which is why you shouldn't close your oldest account because it will drop off your credit report after 10 years. Closed accounts only stay on your credit report for 10 years.
FICO08 factors closed cards into your average account age, until they fall off 10 years from closing at which point they are obviously no longer included in the average.
Never close your oldest credit line if you can avoid it, because in 10 years that WILL hurt your credit history.
If you were loaning money to someone wouldn't you want them to have a history of paying back loans to others?
A closed credit line will drop off your report after 10 years after you closed it (or is it 10 years after open date? I don't know which!)
Looks like a neat deal to me, but it's a bit weird to say there's no annual fee when you need to have a Prime membership...
But in general I think "free" has lost all coherent meaning in modern English. It is used as a synonym of "included." When someone says "free" (at the cost of $100/year) I just roll my eyes in my head.
With the card however, it is a decent card with or without prime membership however since you get 3% without Prime which is still mucher higher cash back than competitive offers.
Even so, the point was it's misleading at best to require something that has an annual fee as a condition to get the best rewards then claim the card has no annual fee.
A bit weird that we have to verify the card to get the 5% back... you'd think the fact that I've been using it for years would be enough verification.
In any case, don't forget to verify!
Go to Your Account -> Manage Payment Options
Then type in your full credit card number and click on verify and rewards will change to 5%.
This is interesting from a market standpoint, but it is directly advertising a paid product in the process.
In practice, I find that the things that give me the most theoretical bang for the buck are things like first class international travel or room upgrades that I wouldn't have necessarily paid face cash value for. And travel rewards often require longer term planning than I find I can easily do.
I get a lot of miles and hotel points anyway so I usually end up taking the very fungible 1 cent per dollar spent when I have the choice.
I'd do more research before using this card.
Personally, I pay off my 2 credit cards on every other Monday just to make sure I never carry a balance
How exactly do you think they offer miles, cashback, etc? It all comes from somewhere. That somewhere being people who pay interest by making the minimum payment.
Learn how to use your credit cards properly. It's simple: Pay off your complete balance every month.
Skeptical. I have done no research, but my instinct is that banks make more on the transaction fees than the interest. That somewhere is all of us paying higher prices to account for those transaction fees.
There are several reviews that note similar things. I was just pointing out that it would be wise to actually read the terms since I don't think the grace period is a legal requirement.
10yrs ago and probably a different product.
How to Avoid Paying Interest on Purchases
Your due date will be a minimum of 21 days after the close of each billing cycle. We will not charge you interest on purchases if you pay your entire balance by the due date each month. We will begin charging interest on balance transfers and cash advances on the transaction date.
This is a standard credit card.