Perks for Amazon Prime Members just keep getting better and better. Yesterday the company announced a new program called Amazon Reload, which grants members “2 % rewards” every time they add funds to their Amazon Gift Card Balance.
The process so far is pretty simple. In order to receive awards you have to be a Prime Member, and to set it up you need to have a US bank account and routing number, a debit card number and a valid US driver’s license number. After you have this all set up, you reload your gift card balance using the 2 percent rewards payment method and then your rewards are added to your gift card balance simultaneously. There is no expiration date or maintenance fee on this balance and customers can use it to purchase anything on Amazon’s website.
The new concept seems like a good way for Amazon to get their customers to ditch credit card spending and make their purchases exclusively through the website. And for the company, this means they can avoid pricey credit card fees, which tend to add up to more than the two percent Amazon is offering its customers, The Verge reported. So it’s a win-win situation for both the company and customers; Amazon saves money when fewer credit cards are used, and the customers get a bonus.
Using Amazon Reload allows spenders to set aside a budget for shopping on Amazon; this means shoppers can keep better track of their purchase amounts and stay within a spending limit. Amazon says when you use the gift card balance to purchase smaller items like MP3 downloads and Kindle eBooks, they will combine them into one general line on your credit card bill. Another perk of using Amazon Reload is being able to add the remaining balance of your pre-paid cards to your Amazon Gift Card Balance. This gift card balance can also be used to make purchases on Amazon.com’s affiliated websites including smile.amazon.com, myhabit.com, and fresh.amazon.com.
Amazon is also giving customers the option to “Auto-Reload” their gift card balance on a scheduled basis or when the balance drops below a certain amount. However, the two percent reward is not yet available for the auto-reload option, so customers are only eligible to receive the reward when they manually reload their gift card balance. Balances are also nonrefundable nor redeemable for cash, the company said.
The company’s new move is another way to get more customers to sign up for their Prime membership program. With a $99 annual fee, or $49 if you’re a Prime Student member, members have access to a host of numerous benefits such as free two-day shipping, unlimited instant streaming of movies and TV episodes, unlimited audio series, and free unlimited photo storage.
According to Forbes, Amazon is now the world’s third-largest retailer. Just earlier this month, the company announced that they would be offering discounts to Prime Members receiving government assistance and in January they introduced a program that allowed customers with an Amazon Prime Store Card to earn 5 percent on their Amazon purchases. Amazon has made some pretty clever moves not only to gain customers but to knock their competition out the way, and this is why they remain one of the world’s largest retailers.
