The Offer
- Spend $500 or more within three months and receive a $100 Amazon gift card as a sign up bonus
The Fine Print
- No annual fee
- Rotating 5% categories
- Free FICO Score
Our Verdict
A lot of people don’t know that Amazon has it’s own credit card section and they are almost always offering a $100 amazon gift card on the Discover it (e.g MtM wrote about this deal back in October of last year). Recently I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails from readers about this deal, so I thought I’d have a look at if this deal makes sense or not.
Discover regularly offers a $150 cash sign up bonus (although this requires a minimum spending of $750 in three months). They generally offer this deal near the end of every year and it continues for the first month or two the following year (e.g last year it was released in early November and the year before in December).
If you got the card now you’d be able to take advantage of the 5% rotating categories for Q1, Q2, Q3 before the higher $150 bonus came along. If you maxed out these categories you’d earn $225, if you put that same spend on a 2% cash back card you’d earn $90. So obviously if you plan on maxing out all three of those quarters you’d be better off getting the card now (you’d get a $100 amazon gift card and $225 compared to $240).
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Gas Stations & Wholesale Clubs | Grocery Stores | Restaurants | Amazon & Wholesale Clubs |
| 2017 | Gas Stations, Ground Transportation & Wholesale Clubs | Home Improvement & Wholesale Clubs | Restaurants. Some cardholders targeted for Amazon | Amazon and Target |
| 2016 | Gas and Ground Transportation | Restaurants & Movies | Amazon, Home Improvement | Sam’s Club, Amazon, and Department Stores |
| 2015 | Gas Stations & Ground Transportation | Summer Spruce Up? | Home Improvement Stores, Department Stores, and Amazon.com | Amazon, department stores, and clothing stores |
| 2014 | Restaurants and Movies | Home Improvement Stores, Furniture Stores and Bed Bath & Beyond | Gas stations | Department Stores and Online Shopping |
| 2013 | Restaurants and Movies | Home Improvement Stores | Gas stations | Online Shopping |
| 2012 | Gas stations, Movie theaters and Museums | Restaurants and Movies | Gas stations, Movies and Theme parks | Department Stores and Online Shopping |
| 2011 | Travel and Restaurants | Home and Fashion | Gas, Hotels, Movies and Theme Parks | Restaurants and Fashion |
Chances are you won’t be able to max out all three quarters though and this also assumes that the $150 offer doesn’t come along again until Q4. Personally I’d just recommend waiting for the $150 offer to come along.
The link above still works. The bonus is now a statement credit for $75 after your first purchase in Amazon. Will let you know how it works out for me.
I’m wondering if it adds the $75 to your CashBack Balance or if it’s actually a Statement Credit.
If it is a Statement Credit and not added to your CashBack Balance then you won’t get the CashBack Match, making applying through a referral a better option. ($50 Right away and $50 CashBack matched at the end of your first year. Plus $50 for whoever referred you). 🙂