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Points & Prime

Prime Visa

How to cancel the Prime Visa

Closing the account forfeits your points and shortens your credit history. Do the two things below before you call.

A small pair of scissors on a plain surface

The short answer

How do you cancel the Prime Visa?

Call Chase, not Amazon — but do two things first. Redeem your points, because they are tied to an open account, and ask about a product change instead of a closure, because that usually preserves the account history a closure throws away.

Before you call

The one thing that is genuinely irreversible

Chase’s wording on the rewards program is that points don't expire as long as your card account remains open (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11). Read that as a condition rather than a reassurance. The protection against expiry is the open account; remove the account and you remove the protection.

A points balance is real money at a fixed rate — 100 points = $1 (each $1 in % back rewards earned is equal to 100 points) (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) — and there is no scenario in which leaving it on a closing account is the right call. Spend it first. Because the value is identical across every redemption route, you do not even need to think about which one: they all pay the same cent, so take whichever is quickest.

Everything else on this page is recoverable or negotiable. This part is not.

Source: Chase — Prime Visa · verified 2026-08-11

The steps

How to close it properly

  1. 1.Redeem your points first

    Points are tied to an open card account. Spend the balance down to zero before you start the closure, at Amazon checkout, as cash back, or on a gift card — every route pays the same fixed cent.

  2. 2.Move any recurring charges

    Subscriptions billed to a closed card fail silently. List the recurring payments on the account and move each one to another card before the closure, not after.

  3. 3.Pay the balance to zero and wait one cycle

    Clear the statement in full, then let one billing cycle pass with no activity. Closing an account with a balance leaves you paying interest on a card you can no longer use.

  4. 4.Consider a product change instead

    Ask Chase whether the account can be changed to a different card rather than closed. A product change usually keeps the account's age on your credit file, which a closure does not.

  5. 5.Call the number on the back of the card

    Closures are handled by Chase, not Amazon. Use the number printed on your card or the contact details inside your Chase account, and ask for written confirmation of the closure.

  6. 6.Check your credit report in 60 days

    The account should appear as closed by the consumer, with a zero balance. If it shows anything else, dispute it with the bureau — an inaccurate closure entry is worth correcting.

The real cost

What closing does to your credit file

This is where most cancellation advice either panics or hand-waves. The effects are real, they are modest, and they are worth understanding rather than fearing.

It removes a credit line from your utilization

Scoring models look at how much of your available credit you are using. Close a card with a $4,000 line and that $4,000 leaves the denominator. If you carry balances on other cards, the same debt now represents a larger share of a smaller total, and the number reported can move noticeably. If you carry no balances at all, the effect is close to nothing. That mechanic is explained in more detail on the credit limit page.

It eventually shortens your credit history

A closed account in good standing does not vanish from your report immediately — it typically stays on file for years. The cost arrives later, when it drops off and takes its age with it. This is why closing your oldest card is generally the worst closure to make, and closing a card you opened last year barely registers.

It does not erase anything that happened

Late payments, if any, stay on the report on their own schedule. Closing an account is not a way to tidy up a history.

None of this means you should never close a card. It means the decision deserves a reason better than tidiness — and on a card with $0 (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11), the usual reason for closing a card is absent.

Source: Chase — Prime Visa · verified 2026-08-11

The alternative

Why a product change usually wins

If the reason you want to close the Prime Visa is that you have stopped paying for Prime, closing is probably the wrong move. The card still works — without an eligible membership the Amazon rate becomes 3% back at Amazon.com, Whole Foods Market and the participating Amazon stores and sites without an eligible Prime membership (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-12) rather than nothing at all.

Better still, the same issuer offers the Amazon Visa, which earns 3% back (Chase — Amazon Visa, verified 2026-08-11) at Amazon.com, Audible.com, Whole Foods Market and Chase Travel (Chase — Amazon Visa, verified 2026-08-11) with no membership requirement and $0 (Chase — Amazon Visa, verified 2026-08-11) annual fee. Asking Chase to change the product rather than close the account gets you the card that fits your situation while keeping the account, and its age, intact.

Chase decides whether a given product change is available, and we cannot promise it will be offered. But it costs one phone call to ask, and the downside of asking is nothing. Ask about it before you say the word “close”.

Sources: Chase — Prime Visa · Chase — Amazon Visa · verified 2026-08-12

Two more things

The details people forget

Authorized users lose their cards too. If you added anybody to the account, closing it ends their access without warning them. Tell them first, and read what an authorized user relationship actually is if you are unsure what else changes for them.

Benefits stop when the account does. The purchase and travel protections on this card — extended warranty, purchase protection, rental coverage — are benefits of an open account. A claim on a purchase made months ago, filed after the account is closed, is a conversation you do not want to be having. If you have an open claim or a recent large purchase relying on those protections, wait.

Get confirmation in writing. Ask for written confirmation of the closure and keep it. Then check your credit report in about sixty days: the account should read as closed at the consumer’s request with a zero balance. Anything else is worth disputing while the paperwork is fresh.

#ad New cardmembers only, and only if the card is right for you. If you are closing an existing account, redeem your points first — this link opens a new application, not a closure. We earn a flat fee if you sign up through this link, at no cost to you. How we’re paid.

Common questions

Common questions

Do you lose your points if you cancel the Prime Visa?
Chase states points do not expire as long as your card account remains open. Closing the account removes that condition, so redeem the balance before you close, not after.
Does canceling a credit card hurt your credit score?
It can, in two ways: it removes that card's credit line from your utilization calculation, and over time it shortens your average account age. Neither is catastrophic, but both are avoidable.
Can you cancel the Prime Visa through Amazon?
No. The card account belongs to Chase even though the application lives on Amazon's site. Closures go through Chase.
What happens to the Prime Visa if you cancel Prime instead?
Nothing closes. The card account stays open and the Amazon earning rate drops to 3% without an eligible Prime membership. Canceling the membership and canceling the card are separate decisions.
Is a product change better than closing the card?
Often, yes. Changing to another card from the same issuer generally preserves the account's history, where closing it starts the clock on that history dropping off your report.

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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.

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Last verified: 2026-08-12