Amazon is one of those retailers that does not have a shopping portal to earn more points on your purchases. There are cards that can give extra points, but none quite as lucrative as the Chase cards with point bonuses. Note: The quarterly bonus for the Chase Freedom during this quarter includes Amazon. That means you can earn 5x points on Amazon purchases up to the first $1,500 in the bonus category. See this page for more.
When it comes to the Chase Ink cards, it is very easy to get 5x points on Amazon purchases. In fact, it is so easy that you would expect people to use this all the time but people are still surprised when I tell them about this. The best part is that this 5X point earning is not just restricted to Amazon – it applies to any store/restaurant that has gift cards sold at office supply stores.
I often write about Amazon Deals of the Day that have relevancy to my readers. Having gift cards in your account can make these incredible deals even more incredible!
Putting It Together
Chase Ink Card
To start, you need to have a Chase Ink card. Now is a great time to apply for either the Chase Ink Plus or the Chase Ink Bold (which will disappear next month). It is great to pick up that many points on the bonus, but earning big points on day-to-day purchases after the bonus is earned is where the value of the card can really be seen.
– Application Link – Chase Ink Plus – 50,000 Ultimate Reward points after spending $5,000 in 3 months
Office Supply Store Bonus
This happens because the Chase Ink cards award 5x Ultimate Reward points per dollar on office supply store purchases, up to $50,000 of spend in that category per year. Since office supply stores (like Office Max and Staples) carry gift cards to many retailers, especially Amazon, you can purchase the gift cards and earn 5x Ultimate Reward points towards future purchases at Amazon.
Buying The Cards
There is really no trick when it comes to purchasing the gift cards. I have purchased up to $1,000 in Amazon gift cards before and only one time did I have a manager come over, at the clerk’s request, because of the uncertainty of purchasing so much (it was actually $500 that time). The manager told me that over a certain amount, it is required to have the purchaser fill out paperwork, but I evidently never hit that amount. If you do, simply decrease the amount and buy more the next day.
Buying Amazon gift cards from office stores with your Ink card will give you 5 points per dollar!
There is no fee for purchasing Amazon gift cards (or other gift cards, with the exception of the Visa, Mastercard, or Amex cards) so if you want to buy $200 in gift cards, your total will be $200. Your points earned from such a purchase (when bought using the Chase Ink card) will total 1,000 Ultimate Reward points. That is worth a straight $10 if applied as a statement credit, $12.50 if used on travel through Chase, or between $15 – $25 depending on the travel partner you transfer the points to. Nice bonus!
Applying the Cards
Applying the Amazon cards to your account is as simple as logging in and selecting Your Account and then to Apply a Gift Card to your Account. Simple! Now, the funds are in your account and ready to be used. It will be available to you during checkout and you can make all of your purchases through Amazon (except for other gift cards) with that credit. Simple!
Negative Points?
There are a couple of negatives to doing this. One of them is that you will not receive any extended warranty on purchases that your credit card may have covered. This happens with any purchases on those items made with a gift card. So, I would choose to buy a computer with a credit card to get that added protection vs using gift cards.
The other negative comes with the cash outlay. While it is easy to go crazy on accumulating your Ultimate Reward points this way, it is important to note that you will be paying the credit card bill, maybe long before you ever use the Amazon gift cards. I always buy enough cards to float in my account so that there is credit there when I am ready to make a purchase, but stop at the store to buy more if I am buying a big ticket item. So, plan accordingly with your spend on them.
I wrote about this a little bit last year, but always get new eyes so thought I would write a new post so that new Chase Ink cardholders could realize the potential of shopping at Amazon with gift cards!
Earth-shattering news! How did no one else think of this for the past 2-3 years?
Is everyone out of ideas on how to forcefeed the INK promo to the readers?
To veterans of miles and points, it is nothing new. But, that does not mean it is not new information to many readers. Plus, it is a way to continue bringing in the points, no matter what bonus someone signs up under.
Besides, if you look at my posts from the last couple of weeks, you would find that I have written about a wide variety of topics, very few of which were the Ink Plus offer.
Only problem if you do too much of this you piss off chase which is why i stick to churning