Prime Visa card review: The ideal card for shoppers

Ultimately, the better choice between the Amazon Prime Visa card and the Capital One Walmart Rewards® Mastercard®** depends which retailer you shop with more often. They have comparable reward programs, except the Amazon card offers 2 percent rewards at gas stations while the Walmart card offers 2 percent cash back on travel.

The Amazon card’s $200 gift card for approval is far better than the Walmart card's welcome offer because it doesn't require any spending at all. Although you'll need to be paying for a Prime membership, which costs $139 annually, the Walmart card would require you to spend $4,000 to earn a sum of cash back that rivals the Amazon card's $200 gift card bonus. However, if you spend $4,000 on Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh or at Whole Foods Market, you'll earn the same amount of cash back as you would with the Walmart card in-store at Walmart in your first year. Combined with the gift card card bonus, the Amazon card can be twice as rewarding as the Walmart card with the same amount of spending.

For big online shoppers seeking maximum rewards flexibility, the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card is one of the most versatile cash back cards. Its online shopping category rewards rate is lower than the Amazon Prime Visa’s, but one of the most comprehensive available, covering major retailers like Amazon.com and Walmart.com on top of retailers and specialty sites like Etsy.com. Plus, you don’t have to worry about an annual fee or membership fee cutting into your rewards. 

The downside of the Bank of America Customized Cash card is that its bonus categories share a $2,500 quarterly spending limit, which will drop your rewards rate for all spending to 1 percent cash back after you exceed it. The Bank of America card’s better welcome offer, intro APR period, and slightly lower ongoing APR may offset this hurdle, but the Amazon Prime Visa card offers unlimited rewards and meatier benefits.

The Citi Double Cash® Card has one of the best flat-rate cash back programs. This card offers up to 2 percent cash back (1 percent when you buy and 1 percent when you pay your credit card balance) and its earn-as-you-pay rewards structure helps you stay on top of your spending habits.

The Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards is another flat-rate cash rewards card that can complement the Amazon Prime Visa card. It has unlimited 1.5 percent cash back on all eligible purchases, so you can use it for purchases that fall outside the Prime Visa’s bonus categories to continue earning great rates. Plus, you can redeem points on Amazon purchases if you want to save at the online retailer occasionally. 

This card is a no-brainer if you regularly use Amazon Prime. You can earn an excellent rewards rate for purchases made on the website or app. You also have the chance to get special offers from Amazon for being a member, such as a high rewards rate on purchases made during promotional periods like Prime Day.

Whole Foods has a great selection of products and produce for healthy eating and nutrition. Whether you use your card for all your shopping needs or just want to pick up a few groceries and save money on delivery costs when you order through Amazon, this card is a great choice.

If you enjoy trying new restaurants or rely on rideshares for your main transportation, this card could be a great addition to your wallet. You may not want to use it as your sole rewards card, but pairing it with another card with a boosted rewards rate on restaurant, gas station and transit purchases could work well.

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Based on this data, we determine a “chargeable” spend (which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards). This includes the following spending by category:

• Groceries: $5,200
• Dining out: $3,000
• Entertainment: $2,500
• Gas: $2,100
• Apparel and services: $1,700

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 23 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value. 

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners. 

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

Applicants with a good to excellent credit score — a 670 FICO score or higher or a 661 VantageScore or higher — have the best approval odds when applying for the Amazon Prime Visa card.

The Prime Visa card doesn’t charge an annual fee, but you’ll have to pay for an eligible Amazon Prime membership. Not including taxes, membership fees are either $14.99 per month or $139 per year. 

Since you don’t need an Amazon Prime membership to have an Amazon credit card, canceling your Prime account won’t cancel your Prime Visa card. Instead, your card will essentially downgrade to the base Amazon Rewards Visa Card, which earns 3 percent rewards on Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market purchases instead of 5 percent. It also doesn’t offer additional Prime-exclusive limited-time cash back offers.

Chase Bank issues the Prime Visa card. This means that the Amazon Prime Visa card is subject to the Chase 5/24 rule: you may not qualify for the Prime Visa card if you’ve opened five or more credit card accounts in the last 24 months.