Chase - Amazon.com Visa Review

I got the Chase Amazon Card because I was buying an expensive gift for my mom on Amazon.com and they were offering 30% (or was it $30?) discount if you bought a card.  It was a long time go so I don't remember the exact details.  It was a good deal though so I signed up.  I've since had the card for years and now use it as my secondary / once in awhile card.  It was my primary for awhile but now my Chase Freedom is my primary because it has better rewards. 

The Good Points:

• Chase Amazon is a Visa card so it's taken everywhere. 
• It's also a Chase card so it links up with all my other Chase accounts online
• The rewards are automatically sent to you once you hit enough points - no need to track it or request it, just check your mail box!
• The reward is a $25 gift card to Amazon once you hit 2500 points.  There's ALWAYS something I can buy at Amazon!
• Amazon.com has free shipping on a number of items
• You can add the Amazon.com gift card into your account and just leave it there until you are ready to use it
• Often when I really want to buy something hat is ONLY on Amazon.com, I already have enough gift card balance to pay for it free of charge :)

The Bad Points:

• The biggest downside is that I've noticed over the years that Amazon.com no longer is the "seller" behind the majority of products on their site.  That means you can't expect free shipping because third parties don't give free shipping.  In fact, finding free shipping is now very hard!
• Shipping is outrageous on most products - so I end up wanting to go to a physical store instead which makes the rewards less useful
• Once I had bought most the items on my Amazon wishlist, it became less and less useful to get these.  Cash back is a better reward because it can be used anywhere

In The End:

My Amazon card still gets use every month but mostly as my secondary card.  I no longer need a ton of $25 Amazon gift cards so I just use it every so often and get a gift card every so often.  I still like having a few gift cards stored in my Amazon account and they do come in useful when I'm shopping for a product that I can't find anywhere else.  Overall though, I use my cash back card a whole lot more because cash is the best reward :)

PS: If you already shop on Amazon.com all the time, then this rewards card might be perfect for you!  But if you hardly shop on Amazon or don't like Amazon, then try a cash back card instead.