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It’s not been a great few years for credit card users seeking loyalty points. While Joe set out a detailed schedule yesterday of how best to maximise your points, the simple truth is that the Amex limitations on “churning” have hit hard. Principally, their extension of the re-application period from 6 months to two years.

Add to that the fact that even when earning loyalty points, Coronavirus has put a substantial dampener on many people’s travel plans, and “travel points-earning credit cards” are definitely not as exciting as they once were.

Which brings me to an alternative: the Amazon Platinum Mastercard.

First up, full disclosure: I have this credit card, but when I mentioned it as an option to Joe his exact words were “that’s not worth the hit on your credit status”. He might be right, but it paid for my niece’s Christmas present…

The Initial Sweetener

What sold me on the Amazon Platinum Mastercard was, to be blunt, the free £20 Amazon voucher. That’s borderline cash for me (and many), and simply requires your card application to be accepted. There is absolutely no spend required.

In fact, to date (and I got the card late last year) I have completed a total of zero spending on the card. Rather wonderfully, my only required Amazon spending since getting the card was using the free £20 I got from the card (hence not having to use it).

However, if I did use the card, I would get the following:

• 0.75 Reward Points for every £1 spent at Amazon (1.5 Reward Points if I was a Prime member, which I’m not).
• 0.25 Reward Points for every £1 spent anywhere else.

Reward Points are worth a penny each at Amazon, with 1,000 points therefore getting a £10 Amazon voucher.

Note that unless you really don’t have any other options, the 0.25 Reward points for non-Amazon spend is terrible. Indeed even the Amazon spend rebate for non-Prime members is pretty average. For example, if you made that spend using the excellent Amex Gold you would get 1 Membership Rewards point per £1. That is, among many other things, convertible to 1 Avios and 1.6 Nectar points (worth 0.8p at Sainsbury, Argos, eBay and others). I would argue that i) 1 Avios is probably worth more than 0.75p Amazon credit and ii) 0.8p at Sainsbury etc is definitely worth more than 0.75p Amazon credit.

So this article is principally about securing the free £20 Amazon voucher for simply getting the card.

Or is it…?

The Additional Bonus

In addition to the £20 gift at the outset, note that from 10 March to 10 April 2021, if you spend £150 or more at Amazon.co.uk using your Amazon Platinum Mastercard, you will earn double Reward Points on all purchases made at amazon.co.uk with your card within this period.

As a result, I will now earn 1.5p in Amazon credit per £1 spent on the site, which suddenly makes my Amazon Platinum Mastercard the “go to” card for Amazon purchases (but still definitely not for non-Amazon purchases, which remains at the pitiful 0.25 pence per £1).

And 3 points per £1 for Prime Members with the Amazon Platinum Mastercard

I believe that if you are a Prime member, this should go to 3 Reward Points per £1, but as I am not a Prime member my promotional material only made reference to the 1.5 points (or 3 points per £2, as they prefer to frame it).

Please just note that while I have no reason to believe that the double points promo is targeted, I would double check with Amazon or New Day (the card issuer) first, as it was a marketing email sent to me.

Anything else?

Yes. You can often sign up to Amazon Prime trials, either for free of for a nominal payment. If you do so, your reward points on spend at Amazon will double, per the above.