The Amazon Business Prime Credit Card: Is It Worth It?

For small business owners who do most of their shopping with Amazon, the Amazon Business Prime Credit Card could be exactly what you’re looking for.

However, before jumping into a card application, you should consider if the card will give you the biggest bang for your buck, or if you’d be better off with a general travel rewards business card.

Let’s look at what the Amazon Business Prime Credit Card has to offer and whether or not it’s worth a spot in your wallet.

Amazon Business Prime Credit Card: Overview

Here’s an overview of the Amazon Business Prime Credit Card.

Amazon Business Prime Credit Card Welcome Offer

Amazon Business Prime cardholders receive an automatic, complimentary welcome offer—with no minimum spending requirements—after having their card application approved.

The typical welcome offer is a $125 Amazon gift card. While this can certainly cut the costs of an Amazon purchase, it’s a fairly mediocre offer considering other business cards typically have welcome offers worth anywhere between $600 and $1,500.

Amazon Business Prime Card Bonus Spending Categories

The Amazon Business Prime Card comes with the following set of bonus spending categories:

• 5% cash back (with eligible Prime membership) or 3% cash back (without eligible Prime membership) on Amazon.com U.S. purchases on the first $120,000 spent per calendar year (1% thereafter)
• 2% cash back at restaurants, gas stations and on wireless phone services purchased directly from service providers
• 1% cash back on all other purchases

You can earn up to $6,000 in cash back in the 5% category or $3,600 in the 3% category, assuming you reach the spending cap of $120,000.

If you or your business spends a significant amount on Amazon purchases, this card can offer you a competitive return on your spending.

The additional 2% cash back at restaurants, gas stations and on wireless phone services purchased directly from service providers also boosts your ability to earn rewards on typical everyday spending.

Amazon Business Prime Card Perks

In terms of additional cardholder perks, the Amazon Business Prime Credit Card is scarce compared to other business cards. Nevertheless, let’s check out what it has to offer.

Account Manager

You’re able to assign an employee, accountant or any other trusted member of your team to manage your Amazon Business Prime Card account. This enables you to focus on other tasks while the account manager oversees everything from issuing employee cards to reviewing transactions.

Employee Cards

You’re able to issue up to 99 employee cards free of charge. You can also set spending limits on your employees’ cards.

This gives you control while enabling your employees’ spending to earn you additional cash back rewards.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

The Amazon Business Prime Credit Card is free of foreign transaction fees.

This makes it a solid choice of card when it comes to spending abroad, saving you potentially hundreds of dollars on unnecessary fees.

Shop With Points

Cash back earned on the Amazon Business Prime Credit Card can’t be redeemed as actual cash back. Instead, you have two options when it comes to redeeming your earnings.

You can either redeem your cash back at the time of a purchase during checkout or as a statement credit toward your balance. If you spend a lot on Amazon purchases, this could be a lucrative way to reduce the cost of your expenditure.

Amazon Business Prime Card Insurances

The Amazon Business Prime Credit Card also comes with a handful of insurance perks. Let’s run through them.

Extended Warranty

When you purchase an eligible item with a U.S. manufacturer’s warranty of five years or fewer using your Prime card, you’ll have the warranty extended by one additional year.*

Purchase Protection

If you purchase an eligible item using your Business Prime card, you’ll receive 90 days of purchase protection coverage.* That will insure you up to $1,000 per purchase and up to $50,000 per card member account per calendar year, in the event of damage or theft.

Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance

When you decline the rental car company’s collision damage waiver (CDW) and pay the full rental car cost with your Business Prime Credit Card, you’ll receive secondary coverage.*

You’ll be insured up to $50,000 in the event of collision damage or theft for up to 31 days.

Baggage Insurance Plan

If you charge your common carrier fare to your Business Prime card, your baggage will be protected in the event that it’s stolen, damaged or lost.*

You’ll be covered by up to $1,250 for carry-on baggage and up to $500 for checked baggage, in excess of the coverage provided by your common carrier. For residents of New York state, a $10,000 aggregate maximum limit for all covered persons per covered trip applies.

Is the Amazon Business Prime Card Worth It?

To reap the full benefits of the Amazon Business Prime Credit Card, you need to have a Business Prime membership. There are six different Business Prime membership tiers with the following annual fees:

• Duo—free with a standard Prime Membership (costing $139 per year)
• Essentials—$179
• Small—$499
• Medium—$1,299
• Enterprise—$10,099

Because the Business Prime card is free of annual fees (see rates and fees), using it to help offset the cost of your Business Prime membership is an efficient way to leverage your natural expenditure.

To break even on the cost of an Essentials membership plan, you’d need to spend $3,580 in the 5% cash back category. Likewise, a Small membership plan would require you to spend $9,980 and a Medium membership plan would require $25,980 in spending. The easiest way to break even on an Enterprise plan’s annual fee would be through spending $100,990 in its 2% cashback category, as you would need to spend well over the cap of $120,000 in the 5% category, reducing your returns to just 1% cash back.

While it would be very unusual to pay for a Business Prime membership simply to get the benefits of the Business Prime Credit Card, using the card to offset the cost of your existing membership is a solid way of boosting its value. Depending on your business’s monthly expenditure, you may or may not be capable of doing this.

If your business’s monthly expenditure is too low to offset the cost of Business Prime membership, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Business Prime card isn’t worth your while. If you frequently shop with Amazon, 5% cash back is a lucrative rewards rate. However, depending on your travel goals and spending habits, you may be better off with a general travel rewards business card that offers you a broader range of bonus spending categories, cardholder perks and redemption opportunities.

The lack of cardholder perks and redemption opportunities makes the Amazon Business Prime Credit Card a weak competitor compared to other business credit cards. So, unless you or your business spends enough to offset your Business Prime membership fee or to get a lucrative return in the 5% cashback category, you’d likely be better off saving that spot in your wallet for a different business card.

Alternatives to the Amazon Business Prime Card Welcome Offer

If the Amazon Business Prime Card doesn’t fit your spending habits, don’t worry—there are plenty of other business cards out there for every type of spender and traveler.

The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card from Chase is one of the best choices when it comes to balancing perks with fees. It offers strong bonus spending categories, robust travel protections and up to 14 airline and hotel transfer partners to whom you can transfer your Ultimate Rewards points. The Ink Business Preferred includes the following perks and benefits, all for an annual fee of $95:

• 3X points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases in the following categories: shipping purchases; advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines; internet, cable and phone services; and travel
• 1X points on all other purchases
• Points are worth more when you redeem for travel through Chase Travel℠
• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
• Cell phone protection plan
• Auto rental collision damage waiver

The Ink Business Preferred enables you to earn a solid return of 3X points per dollar spent on a wide variety of typical business purchases, instead of limiting you to Amazon purchases.

Alternatively, for a $0 annual fee (see rates and fees) and maximum flexibility, The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express earns 2X Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on all purchases and up to $50,000 per calendar year (1X points thereafter). With this card, you won’t need to worry about which merchant you’re shopping with. You can then redeem your Membership Rewards points for lucrative partner transfers with one of Amex’s more than 20 airline and hotel partners.

And if it’s cashback rewards you’re looking for, the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card could be your best option. For a $0 annual fee, you’ll earn:

• 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services (1% thereafter)
• 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants
• 1% cash back on all other purchases
• A one-time, 10% bonus of all eligible cash back earned in your first year of card membership if you hold an eligible Chase Business Checking account

Overall, you’ve got plenty of options to compare to the Amazon Business Prime Credit Card and determine whether it is worth a place in your overall credit card strategy.

Final Thoughts

If your business spending is centered around Amazon purchases, and you already have an Amazon Business Prime membership, the Amazon Business Prime Credit Card could be worth a spot in your wallet.

However, if you’re looking for lucrative rewards on everyday spending, flexible redemption options and additional cardholder perks, you may want to look beyond the Business Prime card. Other business cards, such as the Ink Business Preferred or The Blue Business Plus, come with a much wider range of rewards, perks and greater redemption flexibility.

If you decide on a general travel rewards business card, you could still consider opening a personal Amazon card, such as the Prime Visa.

* Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.