What is the difference between the Amazon credit card and the Amazon store card?

The credit cards are Visas issued by Chase and work anywhere Visa is accepted. The store cards are closed-loop cards issued by Synchrony and work only at Amazon and Amazon-owned services.

What is the difference between the Prime Visa and the Amazon Visa?

The Amazon rate and the membership condition. The Prime Visa earns 5% at Amazon with an eligible Prime membership; the Amazon Visa earns 3% and needs no membership. Both are Chase Visas with no annual fee.

What is the difference between the Amazon Prime card and the Amazon store card?

One is an open-loop Visa from Chase that works everywhere; the other is a closed-loop Synchrony card that works only at Amazon. Both reach 5% at Amazon with an eligible Prime membership.

Who issues Amazon's credit cards?

Two banks. Chase issues the Prime Visa and the Amazon Visa. Synchrony Bank issues the Amazon Store Card and the Amazon Secured Card.

Is the Prime Visa a regular credit card?

Yes. It is a Visa, so it works anywhere Visa is accepted, and it earns on non-Amazon spending as well. That is the structural difference between it and the store cards.

Compare

The difference between every Amazon card

Four products, two issuers, near-identical names. This page is the reference that tells them apart.

The short answer

The four Amazon cards, in one paragraph

Two Visas from Chase that work everywhere: the Prime Visa (5% at Amazon with Prime) and the Amazon Visa (3%, no membership needed). Two closed-loop cards from Synchrony that only work at Amazon: the Amazon Store Card and the Amazon Secured Card, which is the same card plus a refundable deposit.

Why this is confusing

Four products, two issuers, one set of names

“Amazon Prime Rewards Visa”, “Amazon Prime Store Card”, “Amazon Rewards Visa”, “Amazon.com Store Card” — the names have shifted over the years and they were never far apart to begin with. Three of the four contain the word Amazon and a rewards noun, and two of them contain “Prime”.

There is one distinction that makes the whole set legible, and it is not the name. It is the network.

Open loop means the card is on a payment network — here, Visa. It works at any merchant that takes Visa, and it earns rewards on all of that spending.
Closed loop means there is no network. The card exists inside Amazon’s checkout and cannot be used anywhere else.

Sort the four cards by that and everything else falls into place: two open-loop Chase Visas, two closed-loop Synchrony store cards.

The reference

All four cards, defined

Every consumer Amazon card, by issuer and network.
Card	Issuer	Loop	Amazon rate	Needs Prime?
Prime Visa	Chase	Open (Visa)	5% back	Yes, for 5%
Amazon Visa	Chase	Open (Visa)	3% back	No
Amazon Store Card	Synchrony	Closed	5%	Yes, for 5%
Amazon Secured Card	Synchrony	Closed	5%, as reported	Yes, for 5%

Sources: Chase — Prime Visa · Chase — Amazon Visa · Yahoo Finance — Amazon Store Card review · verified 2026-08-11 Includes figures confirmed against a corroborating source because the issuer’s own page could not be reached.

Prime Visa

A Chase Visa. 5% back (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) at Amazon.com, Audible.com, Whole Foods Market and Chase Travel, with an eligible Prime membership, 2% back (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) at gas stations, restaurants, and local transit and commuting (including rideshare), and 1% back (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) on everything else. $0 (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) annual fee and no foreign transaction fees (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11). This is the card most people mean when they say “the Amazon credit card”. Is it worth it?

Amazon Visa

The same card without the membership requirement. Chase, same $0 (Chase — Amazon Visa, verified 2026-08-11) annual fee, 3% back (Chase — Amazon Visa, verified 2026-08-11) at Amazon.com, Audible.com, Whole Foods Market and Chase Travel, and the same 2% and 1% tiers below that. It exists for people who want an Amazon rewards card and do not want to pay for Prime — which is a more common situation than the coverage suggests.

Amazon Store Card

Issued by Synchrony Bank (Yahoo Finance — Amazon Store Card review, secondary source, verified 2026-08-11), closed-loop, usable for Amazon purchases only — Amazon.com, Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh, Audible, AWS, Alexa Skills, and your Amazon Prime membership charge (Yahoo Finance — Amazon Store Card review, secondary source, verified 2026-08-11). It reaches 5% back at Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market for cardholders with an eligible Prime membership (Yahoo Finance — Amazon Store Card review, secondary source, verified 2026-08-11). It is reported as more accessible on fair credit, with starting limits commonly around $400 (Firstcard — Amazon Visa vs Store Card, secondary source, verified 2026-08-11), which is its actual reason to exist. The full breakdown.

Amazon Secured Card

The Store Card with a refundable security deposit attached, aimed at applicants whose credit file is too thin for the unsecured version. Same closed loop, same reported rewards structure. How the two versions differ.

Sorting yourself

Which one you are actually looking for

Three questions, in order. They resolve the whole set.

Do you pay for Prime, or would you anyway? Yes → you want a 5% card. No → you want the Amazon Visa at 3%, and you can stop reading.
Can you be approved for a Chase card? Yes → Prime Visa. Probably not → Amazon Store Card, accepting that it only works at Amazon.
Is your credit file thin rather than damaged? Yes → the secured version is the deliberate on-ramp, with a refundable deposit rather than a fee.

The full comparison hub runs the same decision with the arithmetic attached.

See Amazon's current card offers Compare them properly

#ad All four cards are offered through Amazon by Chase or Synchrony. Sign-up offers are for new cardmembers only and approval is the issuer's decision. We earn a flat fee if you sign up through this link, at no cost to you. How we’re paid.

Common questions

What is the difference between the Amazon credit card and the Amazon store card?: The credit cards are Visas issued by Chase and work anywhere Visa is accepted. The store cards are closed-loop cards issued by Synchrony and work only at Amazon and Amazon-owned services.
What is the difference between the Prime Visa and the Amazon Visa?: The Amazon rate and the membership condition. The Prime Visa earns 5% at Amazon with an eligible Prime membership; the Amazon Visa earns 3% and needs no membership. Both are Chase Visas with no annual fee.
What is the difference between the Amazon Prime card and the Amazon store card?: One is an open-loop Visa from Chase that works everywhere; the other is a closed-loop Synchrony card that works only at Amazon. Both reach 5% at Amazon with an eligible Prime membership.
Who issues Amazon's credit cards?: Two banks. Chase issues the Prime Visa and the Amazon Visa. Synchrony Bank issues the Amazon Store Card and the Amazon Secured Card.
Is the Prime Visa a regular credit card?: Yes. It is a Visa, so it works anywhere Visa is accepted, and it earns on non-Amazon spending as well. That is the structural difference between it and the store cards.

Prime Visa vs Amazon Store Card — the head-to-head most readers actually need
Store Card vs Secured Card — where the fourth card in this list belongs
The Prime Visa without Prime — why the Amazon Visa exists as a separate product at all

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: 2026-08-11