Free Money from AMAZON! (Amazon Mastercard)

Member Name: thegarleon

Product:	Amazon Mastercard
Date:	07/04/06 (1463 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: £15 amazon voucher after first purchase.

Disadvantages: minimum repayment every month. Boring card and pretty average.

How would you like £15 worth of Amazon vouchers? Well all you have to do is sign up and be accepted for Amazon's Mastercard. Everyone and their uncle is bringing out visa and mastercards at the moment, so why should Amazon be any different? What makes this card stand out from the crowd? Eh, wait a minute. What does make this card stand out.........sorry. Nope. Can't think of anything really. I have found the John Major of credit cards!

You see this is probably the most average credit card I have had in a long time. It is not packed with any real WOW features. Here's what you get:-
£15 of Amazon vouchers after you make your first purchase using the card. In theory you could buy a DVD from your local supermarket, get the £15 of Amazon vouchers, then ditch the card if you wanted!

6 months 0% on all purchases and balance transfers. Not great when some card providers are offering up to 18months 0% and up to 12months 0% on purchases.

Reward points from Amazon that you can convert into Amazon vouchers. This is why I picked up this card. 1 point for every £1 you spend on the Amazon website (this DOES include Amazon's marketplace, Auctions and zShops) . 0.5 points for every £1 you spend elsewhere. Again not a blinding deal, but handy. The downside to the points system are- NO points on balance transfers, credit card cheques or cash advances. The points are claimable in £15's. So you have to earn 1500 points before you can claim another voucher. Not brilliant is it.

A quick bit of maths tells me that £10 spent on Amazon would earn you 10 points. £100=100 points £1000= 1000 points, so to get your next voucher from Amazon mastercard, you would have to spent £1500 on the Amazon website. Oh dear. £10 spent in Tesco would earn you 5 points. Quickly Gar...1 + 2 carry the 3 and erm £3000 of purchases would be needed to get another £15 voucher if you bought anywhere else.

Additional cardholders DO NOT get the £15 voucher if you add them to your card. So tell your partner to get their own.

The apr is pretty garbage at 12.9% but is still better than some store based cards which have the cheek to charge 18-29.8%.

The only good thing about this card that I can think of is that it is a Mastercard and not a Visa. I still find myself in places (especially the US and Canada) where Visa is not accepted. In those cases it is handy to have an alternative that isn't Amex!

The card is issued by Halifax and your account can be managed through their online service. Once activated the security measures on the Website are worse than Fort Knox. You go through about 6 type in security question boxes before you get to your account. Pretty good, but more passwords to forget! The other important thing about noting the card provider is that if you wish to transfer a balance, YOU CANNOT do it from a card issued by the Bank of Scotland or Halifax. Check your old card's provider BEFORE you apply!

Paying your balance is easy. Over the phone by switch (some times you can have problems with this as they do not like you to pay them by debit card, weird eh!?), in the bank or on-line via a sort code and account transfer if you are an HBOS customer..

Customer service isn't brilliant. It took nearly a month for my card to be sent out, so I only have lost out a month 0%(due to a missing reply paid envelope and a less than helpful call centre assistant!).

The application process takes only a few minutes and you find out very quickly if you are accepted.

On the whole the Amazon card isn't great. It isn't outstanding. It isn't wonderful. What it is, is an average bit of plastic that will earn you a few Amazon vouchers, without having to fill in endless surveys or write a single review ;)

Thanks for reading.

****Updates *****
Have been trying to contact Amazon and the Halifax regarding claiming my Amazon points. Just think I should point out that the points are only reedeemable after your first statement is on-line. To view your points is a tricky process. Amazon say you go to the "service your account" section......there isn't one. Luckily Halifax pointed out that it only appears after the first statement is issued. We'll see.

....yep. The number of points you have accumulated IS shown on your printed statement AND on line.

You can also make payments over the phone by switch IF you are a Bank of Scotland or Halifax customer. Handy, but only if you get a member of staff in the call centre who can be bothered.

And before I go just a few quick reminders....

Remember that like most credit cards nowadays there is a minimum payment required EVEN THOUGH it is a 0% card, you still have to pay a small sum every month. If you fail to pay....YOU PAY £25s of your own money in a nasty (but haggle to remove !) penalty.

If you have trouble keeping up the repayments on your credit cards, contact the provider as soon as possible to discuss alternative arrangements, alternatively the Citizens Advice

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/

Summary: Show me the money....while the offer lasts. Then ditch it.