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I think it depends on your spend. If you have an Amazon Prime Visa credit card, you get 5% cashback on purchases if you have Amazon Prime, and 3% cashback if y

I think it depends on your spend. If you have an Amazon Prime Visa credit card, you get 5% cashback on purchases if you have Amazon Prime, and 3% cashback if you don't. If you regularly buy a few high-ticket items a year on amazon, that 2% difference will cover the price of prime.

kube-system 3y ago
About a $7,000 break even.
gnicholas 3y ago
Interesting — what sort of big-ticket items do people buy on Amazon that would add up to $7k? I don't buy computers or TVs there (prices are better elsewhere IME), and I can't think of anything else I buy that is in the several-thousand-dollar range. Honestly TVs wouldn't even do it, since I buy them infrequently and spend hundreds (not thousands) on them. We do buy a lot of smaller items, and it's possible we spend $7k in total on an annual basis. But I'm curious what sort of regular big-ticket purchases might make this add up. There's also the higher discount at Whole Foods, but honestly I've found their pricing to be so high in recent months that I don't go there at all. Bread, eggs, and milk were 40% more than at Trader Joes. They do have great deals occasionally, but the vast majority of our grocery purchases are staples that are typically quite expensive there.
- slipheen 3y ago
  I’m sure it varies from person to person- but I typically buy my Apple products there since they aren’t typically discounted elsewhere anyway. In the last year, I also picked up a treadmill, and new NAS device, and some camera equipment. My total spend for the year was somewhat embarrassingly high, but well over 7K.
tzs 3y ago
There are non-Amazon cards that will also give 5% at Amazon, but also at other online retailers. For example if you have at least $100k in BofA accounts their "Customized Cash Rewards" card gives you 5.25% in your chosen category [1]. At first that doesn't seem like a good deal. Who keeps $100k in their checking and savings accounts? But BofA owns Merrill and they include Merrill accounts in the total. [1] Categories are online shopping, gas & EV charging, dining, drug stores, home improvement & furnishing, and travel. You can change categories once in each calendar month.

kube-system 3y ago

About a $7,000 break even.

gnicholas 3y ago

Interesting — what sort of big-ticket items do people buy on Amazon that would add up to $7k? I don't buy computers or TVs there (prices are better elsewhere IME), and I can't think of anything else I buy that is in the several-thousand-dollar range. Honestly TVs wouldn't even do it, since I buy them infrequently and spend hundreds (not thousands) on them. We do buy a lot of smaller items, and it's possible we spend $7k in total on an annual basis. But I'm curious what sort of regular big-ticket purchases might make this add up. There's also the higher discount at Whole Foods, but honestly I've found their pricing to be so high in recent months that I don't go there at all. Bread, eggs, and milk were 40% more than at Trader Joes. They do have great deals occasionally, but the vast majority of our grocery purchases are staples that are typically quite expensive there.

slipheen 3y ago
I’m sure it varies from person to person- but I typically buy my Apple products there since they aren’t typically discounted elsewhere anyway. In the last year, I also picked up a treadmill, and new NAS device, and some camera equipment. My total spend for the year was somewhat embarrassingly high, but well over 7K.

tzs 3y ago

There are non-Amazon cards that will also give 5% at Amazon, but also at other online retailers. For example if you have at least $100k in BofA accounts their "Customized Cash Rewards" card gives you 5.25% in your chosen category [1]. At first that doesn't seem like a good deal. Who keeps $100k in their checking and savings accounts? But BofA owns Merrill and they include Merrill accounts in the total. [1] Categories are online shopping, gas & EV charging, dining, drug stores, home improvement & furnishing, and travel. You can change categories once in each calendar month.