The Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card* from Chase is a solid store card for frequent Amazon and Whole Foods shoppers. During the holiday season, this card has even more opportunities to shine depending on your spending habits.

Here are some perks you could enjoy when you use this Amazon credit card to pay for your holiday purchases.

Earn 5% back on Amazon purchases

There’s a lot to love about the Prime Visa card, especially when you consider it has no annual fee. Perhaps the biggest perk that the card has to offer holiday shoppers is the opportunity to earn 5 percent cash back on purchases at both Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market.

Let’s examine how much you could potentially earn in rewards throughout the holiday season. According to a recent survey by The Conference Board, the average shopper plans to spend a little over $1,000 on gifts and related non-gift items (like food, decorations and wrapping paper) during the 2022 holiday season. For a two-person household, that potentially represents $2,000 worth of spending.

If you made $2,000 worth of purchases on the Prime Visa at Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market, you would earn $100 worth of rewards.

If you made $2,000 worth of purchases on a rewards card that earned a standard 2 percent cash back (like the Citi® Double Cash Card, which gives you unlimited 1% cash back when you buy, plus an additional 1% as you pay for those purchases), you would earn $40.

While the 5 percent rewards earning capability is one of the most appealing benefits of the Prime Visa, the card also offers 2 percent back at restaurants, gas stations and drugstores and 1 percent back on everything else.

Save with the Shop with Points program

Another benefit you can enjoy when you open the Prime Visa is the Shop with Points program. The rewards you earn when you use the card tally up in the form of points. Once you reach 100 points, you will have $1 you can redeem at Amazon.com for eligible purchases. However, you can’t use points to buy many items — notably, a number of small purchases such as Kindle ebooks, music purchases and video downloads.

Furthermore, the Shop with Points program may not give you the best redemption values for your rewards. You may get a better deal if you redeem points for travel, cash back or gift cards. Redemption values could also be far better on travel rewards credit cards that let you transfer points to travel partners (though you’ll likely pay annual fees on these accounts).

Enjoy up to 25% cash back with exclusive offers

When you hold the Prime Vida card, you can purchase select items from the Prime Card promotion page and get up to 25 percent cash back. These Prime Card “Bonus Deals” are available in product categories such as:

  • Fashion
  • Toys
  • Home
  • Electronics
  • Office

You can take advantage of these special offers to check off items on your holiday gift list. Once any eligible Prime Bonus Deal purchase posts to your account, you’ll receive the extra percentage you earned back as a statement credit, which will be available to use within one or two billing cycles.

Rest easy with Visa Signature protections

As a Visa Signature credit card, the Prime Visa card comes with purchase protections that can be particularly useful for holiday shoppers.

Extended warranty protection

When you buy an eligible product with your Prime Rewards Visa card, you can enjoy added peace of mind knowing that the card offers an extended warranty. Rules apply, of course. But as long as you use your card to buy a permitted product with a U.S. manufacturer’s warranty of three years or less, you’ll get an extra year of warranty coverage.

Purchase protection

It can be a sickening feeling when a new holiday gift breaks or is subject to theft not long after purchase. If you purchased the item with your Prime Rewards Visa, however, you might be in luck. The card offers a purchase protection benefit that can cover new, eligible purchases for up to 120 days against theft or damage. Claims are limited to $500 each and up to $50,000 total per account.

Should you open a Prime Visa card for the holidays?

There’s no question that the Prime Visa card is one of the best credit cards for shopping on Amazon in 2023. The fact that the card has no annual fee is a big plus.

You do have to maintain an Amazon Prime membership to keep the card, but you can offset that $139 annual cost if you spend at least $2,780 per year at Amazon.com and Whole Foods. Plus, new accounts feature a sign-up bonus of a $200 Amazon gift card.

On the other hand, you shouldn’t open an account if you plan to revolve a balance from month to month. The variable APR on the card ranges from 17.24 percent to 25.24 percent, based on credit and other factors. If you carry a balance, the interest charges you’d pay could easily offset any rewards you’d earn. Plus, carrying a balance could increase your credit utilization ratio (and might lower your credit score, too).

Worried you won’t qualify for a Prime Visa card due to credit problems? The Amazon Prime Store Card* from Synchrony may accept applicants with fair credit. You can read our Amazon store cards vs. Prime Visa credit cards comparison for more information on how these cards stack up against each other.

The bottom line

As the holiday season approaches, it could be a great time to take advantage of the higher rewards rate that the Prime Visa card has to offer. Just be sure that you’re committed to using your credit card responsibly. On-time payments and paying your full statement balance off each month are essential with any credit card you open if you want to avoid debt and credit problems down the road.

*All information about the Amazon Prime Store Card has been collected independently by Bankrate and has not been reviewed or approved by the issuer.