I just applied for an Amazon.com Visa card, because I understand that you can earn points to get free stuff from Amazon.com the more you use it. I am not a credit card expert, so I just wanted to ask people if it is “on the level”–if this reward program works, and if the card itself is a decent one.
I only have one credit card right now, a wholly unremarkable Visa I applied for as a freshman in college in 1996. (I actually applied to several cards back then because you always got free gifts for signing up, and this was just the first one–I cut up all the rest.) I’ve NEVER carried a balance, always paid it on time, and only use it when I don’t have cash on me and don’t feel like getting cash from an ATM. Needless to say, I’m a responsible credit card user. I would even pay any outstanding balance and cancel this card outright if I get enough good recommendations for the Amazon.com card.
But just in case, my APR on my current Visa is 6.49%, and I think the APR on the Amazon.com Visa is much higher–something like 10%? I have no intention of spending beyond my means, but this is going to be the big year where I get my first real job and first real place to live on my own. Should I be worried?
Right now, my biggest concern is getting free books, CDs, and DVDs from Amazon.com, just for using my credit card to make normal purchases (gas, groceries, any expenses that come up). Is it as easy as it sounds? I’d appreciate any insights.
I have an Amazon.com Visa too, and I’m happy with it. I’ve earned $75 in rewards this year so far, and I’m about to get another $25 certificate! (that’s a lot of free books!) I use it for just about everything so that I can get points. But be careful that you don’t start spending money you don’t have!
I have one, and the gift certificates are sure nice if you are like me and already spend a lot of money at Amazon. It’s basically 1% cash-back, though, so it does take a while to get that $25 if you don’t put much on the card. I have all my recurring bills that will let me pay by credit card going to this card, which gets paid in full every month. If you don’t pay off the card every month, though, it would be easy to get to the point where you’ve paid more interest than you can ever get from the 1% back, so be careful.
There are a few negatives about the card:
The APR tends to be higher, which in my limited experience is normal for cards with rewards.
The web interface seems a little clunky to me. It’s a BankOne card, and uses their interface. It’s functional, but IMO isn’t organized very intuitively. Not that big a deal.
The one gift certificate I’ve received was in a plain brown envelope that was simply labeled “rewards department,” without further identification. This landed it in the pile of miscellaneous snail-mail spam I get, to be sifted at leisure. If I weren’t in the habit of checking every piece of mail for just such things, it would have been easy to throw it out without realizing.
Overall I like the card, and it offers much better incentive for me to use it than my other current and past cards.
I’ve got the card, and I have nothing but praise for it. Here’s my story:
We had the card back when it was with a previous bank. We paid a large medical bill with it. That very month, the bank went under and the amazon.com card switched to a new bank. In the process, we were expected to lose our reward balance.
Even though they didn’t have to, amazon.com went out of their way to communicate with us, and to assure us that they would give us the rewards for the “lost” time. Made it almost painless. I’m a happy cardmember.
I use my rewards to buy things I need for my infant from the Babies R Us section (and every now and then something frivolous for me). Getting the rewards to buy things I would buy anyway is a nice way of saving money in a cash-strapped household. And frivolous things are fun too!!
(FTR: I always pay off my balance, so I don’t know about the experience from that side of things.)