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Billing to Your Cell Bill Can Be a Points Winner but NOT With Amazon Prime – AVOID!

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Rene’s Points For Better Travel, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc. has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Rene’s Points For Better Travel and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.


monthly billing amazon prime will cost you way too much - get yearly
Yeah, no thanks Sprint – PASS!

Sprint, as well as other cell companies, is pushing to have you bill your Amazon Prime membership to your cell bill. To me, for under $100 a year, Prime membership is just a must have. From free shipping to video (including downloading for off-line viewing) is well worth the cost per year.

But is this a good idea or value to instead bill it monthly to your cell bill to take advantage of 5x earnings cards like the Chase  BANK  INK cards that earn you Ultimate Rewards (UR) points? Look at the math:

  • $10.99 x 12 months = $131.88
  • You could net 660 UR points @ minimum value of $6.60
  • You pay $32.88 more vs yearly $99 fee
  • You would have to value UR points at over 20 cents each?!

So as you can see, the additional cost to bill it monthly vs simply paying once a year for the subscription is not a good value at all unless you value your UR points at crazy astronomical levels.

Having said that, there can be times where billing to your cell can be the best choice to max out points earnings and I think moving forward “pay by cell” will continue to expand so be on the lookout for great deals – just not paying monthly your Amazon Prime membership! – René

Rene’s Points For Better Travel, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc. has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Rene’s Points For Better Travel and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.


Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

René de Lambert is a contributing writer and the founder of RenesPoints. He is an avid Delta and SkyTeam flyer who has held Delta’s top Diamond Medallion status for many years and flown millions of miles.

3 Comments

  1. Gregg G Reply

    on a side note with Amazon Prime… My wife had her own AP account and she passed away 3 months ago. I need to figure out how to merge hers with mine so we, as a family, dont lose the books and other things she purchased.

    • rene Post Author Reply

      @Gregg – Very sorry for your loss and I have no idea how to get that done. Reach out to Amazon.

  2. gregg g Reply

    Thanks René. She also was a Renée, with the extra “e”.

    Havent asked Amazon yet. I spoke to a friend of mine that works at AWS and he didnt think they supported merging accounts together.

    Gregg

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