Does cash back cover credit card interest?

No. On the Prime Visa the published purchase APR runs 18.74% to 27.49% variable against a top earning rate of 5% at Amazon. Roughly one month of carried interest cancels a full year of rewards on the same balance.

How long can you carry a Black Friday balance before the rewards are gone?

About a month and a half at the low end of the published APR range, and about a month at the high end. After that the interest exceeds everything the purchase earned.

Does the grace period mean interest-free time?

Only if you pay in full. Chase's published grace period applies when the account is paid in full by the due date, which is what stops purchase interest from starting.

What is the minimum interest charge on the Prime Visa?

Chase's pricing and terms disclosure publishes a minimum interest charge, so a small carried balance can be charged that floor amount rather than a proportional figure. Check the current disclosure for the exact number.

Is a 0% intro offer a safer way to spread holiday spending?

The Prime Visa's own published terms are what matter, and a promotional rate is a separate product feature that appears and disappears. Read the current offer terms on the issuer page rather than assuming any intro period applies.

Black Friday

When holiday interest eats the 5%

One month of carried balance can cost more than the rewards on the purchase that created it. The math is short.

The short answer

How fast does interest eat a 5% reward?

In about a month. The Prime Visa earns 5% back at Amazon and charges 18.74%–27.49% variable on purchases. Divide the annual rate by twelve and roughly one to two months of carried balance wipes out the entire reward on the purchase that created it.

The two numbers

A rate that is earned against a rate that is charged

Everything on this page comes from two published figures on the same card. The earning rate at Amazon is 5% back (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11). The cost of not paying in full is 18.74%–27.49% variable (Chase — Prime Visa Pricing & Terms, verified 2026-08-13).

The reward is a one-time percentage of the purchase. The interest is a recurring percentage of the unpaid balance. Those are not the same kind of number, which is exactly why comparing them is worth doing carefully rather than by instinct.

Sources: Chase — Prime Visa · Chase — Prime Visa Pricing & Terms · verified 2026-08-11

The arithmetic

How many months of interest a 5% reward buys

The math

Holiday purchase at Amazon: $1,000
Earned at 5%: $50
Purchase APR, low end of published range: 18.74%
Purchase APR, high end of published range: 27.49%

Monthly interest at 18.74% = 0.1874 / 12 = about 1.56% of the balance
On $1,000 that is about $15.62 a month
$50 of rewards / $15.62 = about 3.2 months at the low end
Monthly interest at 27.49% = 0.2749 / 12 = about 2.29%, or about $22.91 a month
$50 / $22.91 = about 2.2 months at the high end

Two to three months of carrying a $1,000 holiday balance cancels the entire 5% reward it earned. After that you are paying for the privilege of having earned it.

This is simple interest on a static balance, which flatters the card. In reality the balance is compounding, you are likely adding to it during the season, and any January spending sits on top. The real crossover arrives sooner than the arithmetic above suggests, not later.

Sources: Chase — Prime Visa · Chase — Prime Visa Pricing & Terms · verified 2026-08-11

At a glance

What a carried holiday balance costs by month

Approximate interest on a $1,000 balance carried at each end of the published APR range, against $50 of rewards earned.
Months carried	At 18.74%	At 27.49%	Rewards still ahead?
1 month	about $16	about $23	Yes
2 months	about $31	about $46	Barely
3 months	about $47	about $69	No, at the high end
6 months	about $94	about $137	No, at either end
12 months	about $187	about $275	No — four to five times the reward

Source: Chase — Prime Visa Pricing & Terms · verified 2026-08-13

The bottom row is the honest headline. A holiday balance still sitting there next November has cost four to five times what the shopping earned, and the earning was the reason the card was chosen in the first place.

The mechanism

What the grace period actually requires

The card does have a period where purchases carry no interest, and its condition is precise. Chase publishes it as your due date will be a minimum of 21 days after the close of each billing cycle, and Chase will not charge interest on new purchases if you pay your entire balance or Interest Saving Balance by the due date each month (Chase — Prime Visa Pricing & Terms, verified 2026-08-22).

Read the condition rather than the headline. It is paid in full, not paid the minimum, and not paid most of it. A partial payment is what converts a grace period into an interest-bearing balance, and it is the single most common misunderstanding about how a credit card works.

There is also a floor. Chase’s disclosure publishes a none (Chase — Prime Visa Pricing & Terms, verified 2026-08-22), which is why a small carried balance can produce an interest line that looks disproportionate. The full rate structure — purchase APR, cash advance APR, penalty APR and fees — is on the Prime Visa APR page.

Source: Chase — Prime Visa Pricing & Terms · verified 2026-08-22

If the balance is the plan

Then the rewards are not the question

Some holiday budgets genuinely need spreading, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. What this page can do is separate the two decisions, because they get tangled up constantly.

The rewards decision is: which card earns most on the spending I am going to do anyway. The financing decision is: what is the cheapest published way to spread a cost I cannot pay in one month. Those have different answers, and the second one is not settled by a cash back rate. We compare the published options — the card, Amazon’s own monthly payment routes and third-party installment plans — on Amazon monthly payments compared.

This site publishes rates, fees and arithmetic. It does not tell you whether to borrow, and nothing here is personalized financial advice — that boundary is set out on our terms page.

See the current Prime Visa offer The full rate structure

#ad New cardmembers only, subject to approval. APRs are variable and set by Chase, and the published range changes — check the current pricing and terms before applying. We earn a flat fee if you sign up through this link, at no cost to you. How we’re paid.

Common questions

Does cash back cover credit card interest?: No. On the Prime Visa the published purchase APR runs 18.74% to 27.49% variable against a top earning rate of 5% at Amazon. Roughly one month of carried interest cancels a full year of rewards on the same balance.
How long can you carry a Black Friday balance before the rewards are gone?: About a month and a half at the low end of the published APR range, and about a month at the high end. After that the interest exceeds everything the purchase earned.
Does the grace period mean interest-free time?: Only if you pay in full. Chase's published grace period applies when the account is paid in full by the due date, which is what stops purchase interest from starting.
What is the minimum interest charge on the Prime Visa?: Chase's pricing and terms disclosure publishes a minimum interest charge, so a small carried balance can be charged that floor amount rather than a proportional figure. Check the current disclosure for the exact number.
Is a 0% intro offer a safer way to spread holiday spending?: The Prime Visa's own published terms are what matter, and a promotional rate is a separate product feature that appears and disappears. Read the current offer terms on the issuer page rather than assuming any intro period applies.

The Prime Visa APR, in full — the published rate structure this page does arithmetic on
Eight Black Friday mistakes that cost rewards — where this sits as mistake number one
Amazon monthly payment options compared — if spreading the cost is the actual question
Late payments and the penalty APR — the version of this that gets worse rather than better

Written by Stephen V. — An enthusiast who's genuinely into this. I read the terms, compile the published rates, and do the math. No lab coat, no credentials, no test lab.

About this site · How we research · How we’re paid

Last verified: 2026-09-06