American Express Allows Spending of Reward Dollars on Amazon

American Express cash-back cardholders can now spend their Reward Dollars on Amazon.

With eligible cards, they can do so while getting the same value for their Reward Dollars as a statement credit, American Express said in an announcement emailed to PYMNTS. One Reward Dollar equals $1 on Amazon’s website or app.

To participate in this offer, cardholders link their eligible American Express card to their Amazon account and then select Reward Dollars as the payment method at checkout, according to the announcement. Reward Dollars can be used to cover some or all of the total purchase, and they will be converted to dollars and deducted from the total at checkout.

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that card reward programs are proving to be highly effective in building customer loyalty across industries.

Sixty-five percent of credit or debit card users prefer to shop with brand or merchants where they are loyalty or rewards program members, according to “Leveraging Item-Level Receipt Data: How Card-Linked Offers Drive Customer Loyalty,” a PYMNTS and Banyan collaboration.

The report also found that 4 in 10 consumers prefer card reward programs that are tailored to their needs.

During American Express’ most recent earnings call, the company reported that consumers are continuing to spend on leisure activities — and are using their cards to do so.

The company’s total network billed business — a measure of cardholder spending — was up 7% in the latest quarter to $420 billion, American Express said in earnings materials released in October. Spending on goods and services was up 6%, while spending on travel and entertainment was up 13%.

In another partnership with Amazon, payments FinTech Fiserv said in July that it is letting cardholders redeem points for purchases made with the retailer. The offering allows cardholders at financial institutions that are part of Fiserv’s uChoose rewards program and enrolled in the Amazon Shop with Points program to redeem rewards points for all or part of their qualifying purchases at checkout.

“Consumers love choice, and Amazon provides it,” Rajeev Yerukalapudi, vice president of product management at Fiserv, said when announcing the company’s partnership with the retailer.