Chase Amazon Visa vs Chase Freedom Card

By : Mr Credit Card

On the surface, the Amazon Visa and the Chase Freedom couldn't be more different cards. One appears to be a retail store card while another is a cash back and rewards card. However, in the fourth quarter of recent years, the Chase Freedom card has allowed cardholders to earn 5% cash back when they use the card to shop at amazon.com (subject to $1,500 cap). You should also take note that Amazon.com last appeared on the Q4 5% list in 2015. Since then, the list has consisted on "department stores" and even Walmart in 2017. The 5% is more than Amazon's 3% on their own card.



And since many folks do the majority of their shopping towards year end, it presents a difficult choice for some. So which card should you get? Well, in this comparison, we'll look at both cards and figure out the circumstances which you should choose one over the other.

Though the Amazon Visa and Chase Freedom are both issued by Chase and are both reward cards, they are really quite different in the way they allow you to earn points.

The Amazon obviously allows you to earn points when you shop at Amazon.com. In fact, you will earn three points for every dollar you spend at amazon.com. However, in addition to that, you also earn double points for spending on dining and gasoline. For other regular purchases, you will earn one point per dollar.

The Chase Freedom is different from Amazon in that it is a more of an all-round rewards and cash back card. At a base level, you will earn one point per dollar that you spend on the card. However, the Freedom is also commonly known as a rotating category card. You will earn 5% cash back on certain items for three months. And then those items will change again. For example, let us use gasoline as an example. In the case of the Amazon card, you will earn 2X for gasoline. For the Freedom card, you might earn 5% cash back for gasoline for the first quarter of the year (as an example).
 

Both cards allow you to redeem your points in a variety of ways. For Amazon, you would think that all they would do is to let you redeem points for your purchases on Amazon. You could do that, but you could also redeem your points for cash back gift cards and merchandises.

The main way most cardholder will redeem points is for their amazon.com purchases. However, there are some items that you cannot redeem for. For example, you cannot redeem for digital goods, some gift certificates, Kindle downloads, Subscribe and Save items, AmazonFresh, or orders containing Pre-order items. You could pay in full for purchases using points, or partially use some points and pay the rest with your Amazon Visa. You can even use points with gift cards as well.



Aside from using points for Amazon.com purchases you can also use points to redeem cash back, gift cards and merchandise from Chase's rewards program as well.

As far as the Chase Freedom points go, you can redeem them for travel, cash back, gift cards and merchandises from their reward program.

There a few questions that you have to ask yourself if you torn between these two cards.

The first question to ask yourself if how much do you really spend at Amazon? If all you do is to buy the occasional stuff, then clearly you would be better off with the Chase Freedom.

You also have to ask your self when do you exactly buy stuff from Amazon. If you only buy from them during the holiday season, then you may be better off with the Chase Freedom since you can earn 5X points during the 4th quarter as very often, they include amazon.com in their rotating categories for Q4 (the last time Amazon.com was on their Q4 5% list was in 2015. Since then, amazon.com has not appeared on the Chase Freedom Q4 5% list). If you are always buying something from amazon.com throughout the year, then the Amazon Visa will probably make more sense. The Chase Freedom also limits the total spending for their rotating categories to $1,500. So if you spend more than that at amazon.com during Q4, then that may also be an issue.

Another factor to consider is that the Chase Freedom is a rotating category card. I personally have this card and every quarter, you will be sent an email asking you to enroll. It does not automatically enroll you and for some of you, that might be just too much of a hassle. It has certainly annoyed me the last year or so.

You also have to consider how do you want to redeem points. The Chase Freedom allows you to redeem points for cash back, travel, gift cards and merchandise from their reward program. The amazon rewards points can also be redeemed for these but in addition, you can use points to reduce your purchase price when you check out. You can use points to partially pay, to fully pay or use it together with a gift card as well. The one thing you have to be aware is that you cannot use points for certain products like kindle books! (We mentioned earlier the items that are not eligible for points use above).