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How to maximize your cash back on Amazon

  • Joseph Hostetler

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    If you’re like me, you’re constantly making transactions through Amazon. Just about anything you could possibly want is on there, after all. Do you have a strategy?

    No matter how little or how much you spend with Amazon, you need to be implementing the following tactics to earn cash back in a hurry. Try one or two of the following tactics, and you’ll soon realize how significantly you can reduce your final bill.

    With coronavirus bearing down on us, online shopping is more popular than ever. Here’s how to save big. (Photo by Jeramey Lende/Shutterstock)

    Maximize your cash back on Amazon

    Earn 5% back on all Amazon purchases

    Did you know it’s possible to get 5% back on every single thing you buy from Amazon? It’s extremely easy if you have the Ink Business Cash℠ Credit Card.

    The secret is to purchase Amazon gift cards at either Office Depot, Staples or Office Max. There is a ~$6 fee for purchasing a gift card, though there are promotions in which the purchase fee is waived. That’s the time to jump on gift cards!

    If you return an item paid with a gift card, you automatically get a credit to your Amazon.com gift card balance. The Chase Ink Business Cash earns 5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent at Office Supply stores, which includes Amazon. It’s very easy to load these gift cards to your Amazon account and earn effectively 5% cash back per dollar spent for all your Amazon.com purchases.

    Chase points can be redeemed for cash back at 1 cent per point. Plus, if you have other Chase cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you can also redeem your points for:

    Read our post about the best ways to use Chase points to learn how powerful they can be — and how big of a deal it is to earn 5 points per dollar!

    The Chase Ink Business Cash is a small business card, but don’t let that intimidate you — you don’t need a full-time business with employees or six-figure revenue. It’s possible to qualify for a small-business credit card with a part-time side hustle or a freelance gig. Read our post on how to complete a Chase business card application.

    Shop through an online portal

    Online shopping portals are an easy way to earn lots of bonus miles, points, or cash back on purchases you’d probably make anyway. Nearly every airline, hotel, and bank has some kind of shopping portal to help you earn free travel extra quickly.

    However, Amazon doesn’t participate in many online shopping portals. But occasionally, we’ll see a good promotion pop up. For example, we’ve seen TopCashBack offer up to 6% cash back when you shop in select Amazon departments. You can sometimes use promo codes in addition to the shopping portal offer, bringing your a substantial final savings.

    I recommend using Cashback Monitor to search for the best portals for Amazon. I find it’s usually the most up-to-date, and the site has lots of handy features.

    Targeted promotions with steep discounts

    Amazon continually offers various promotions that can save you literally hundreds of dollars each year. One of the most frequently spotted deals is the option to receive a flat discount by paying for your cart in part with travel rewards points like Chase points, Amex Membership Rewards points and Citi ThankYou points. For example, we recently saw a deal that offered $15 off a purchase of $60+ by pay with at least 1 Amex Membership Rewards point! That’s a fantastic deal.

    There are also occasional promotions with Amazon Cash, such as a free $10 Amazon credit after loading $40+ to your Amazon account. Currently, however, there’s only a $5 credit when first-time users load $20 to their account.

    We’ve even seen a targeted offer to save up to 50% off your next Amazon purchase for your first sign-in on the Amazon app. There are plenty of promotions to keep the cash back rolling in.

    Subscribe to Amazon Prime (sometimes at a discount)

    Literally all of us at MMS have an Amazon Prime membership. It comes with perks like free two-day shipping, select streaming movies, TV shows, music, etc. You’ll also receive access to Amazon Prime Day, which is a 48-hour sale solely available to Amazon Prime members. Its discounted items range spectacularly, from top-tier electronics to housewares and clothing. It’s kind of like Amazon’s version of Black Friday — but exclusive.

    An Amazon Prime membership costs $119 per year. If you’re the kind of customer who often pays extra for rushed shipping, or if you’ll get plenty of use from the program’s other features, a Prime membership is a no-brainer. Plus, we’ve seen in the past as high as a $32 discount on the yearly membership during certain promotions.

    With this particular order, Thursday shipping is FREE with Amazon Prime. That’s $19.79 in savings with a single order — if you’d pay to rush deliver anyway.

    Use Paribus

    Paribus is incredibly useful for saving money with Amazon. Once you sign-up here with your Google, Yahoo or Microsoft account, it will begin tracking your email account for potential savings with:

    I’ve received multiple emails from Paribus telling me that my Amazon order will be delivered late, and that I’m entitled to compensation from Amazon. In its email, it provides:

    In other words, it takes no effort on my part. I don’t have to rummage through old emails for order numbers or navigate to Amazon.com to find the customer service page with the live chat option. I followed the instructions Paribus sent me and Amazon credited me $5 for the inconvenience of my late package!

    This is a tool provided by Capital One, though you don’t need any kind of relationship with Capital One to use it. The whole program is completely free.

    Subscribe & Save

    On certain purchases, Amazon incentivizes you to set up recurring deliveries by offering up to 5% off. This isn’t 5% cash back per se, but it could still save you 5% on products like paper towels, dog food, family planning, etc.

    Bottom line

    With the proper combination of free tools, credit cards, promotions, memberships and shopping portals, you can earn hundreds of dollars in cash back each year with Amazon. But you need a strategy. Our favorite way to shop on Amazon is by using the Chase Ink Business Cash to buy Amazon gift cards at Office depot. It effectively earns us 5% cash back (or more, if you know how to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points) on every purchase!

    Let me know your strategy to maximizing your cash back with Amazon. And subscribe to our newsletter for posts like this delivered to your inbox.

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)