JPMorgan Chase & Co. is making it easier for holders of its cobranded Amazon Visa credit card to redeem rewards points for purchases.
Cardholders now may apply rewards points automatically toward purchases during the checkout process at Amazon.com. They previously had to follow a six-step process to redeem points by ordering a gift card that was mailed to them, Chris Conrad, general manager of Chase Card Services, told PaymentsSource in an interview. Customers then could use the gift card to pay for purchases online.
“The rationale (behind the new redemption method) was to make redemption for Amazon purchases as easy as possible, and the best way to do that was to fully integrate the rewards points into the Amazon checkout process,” said Conrad. “We’re getting rid of a barrier.”
The new process includes a button on the checkout page that enables cardholders to pay using all or part of their Amazon card points.
Chase plans to begin promoting the service June 28 by including a header on the Amazon.com home page informing cardholders of the change. The digital ad will let cardholders know there is no minimum for using points at checkout. Previously, there was a $25 minimum to redeem points.
The ad also will note that every 100 points earned equals $1. Chase also plans to use direct mail, email and ads on Chase.com, Amazon.com and other online sites to promote the service, Conrad said.
Making redemptions simpler for cardholders is an important step in keeping cardholders loyal to a rewards program, one analyst contends. “Redeeming points directly from the website is really the way a lot of rewards programs are going to go in the future,” Adil Moussa, an analyst at Boston-based Aite Group, said in an interview, noting convenience is “really the name of the game.”
Chase, however, was not the first to apply automatic points redemption on Amazon.com.
Amazon struck a deal with American Express Co. in September that enabled Amex cardholders to redeem Membership Rewards points for purchases (
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