Earn 4% back at Amazon with this new no annual fee card — no Prime membership required

With Amazon Prime Day quickly approaching, you may be looking for the best credit card to use for your purchases on those big shopping days.

Here, CNBC Select explains a new option worth considering that offers up to 4% cash back on your Amazon purchases. If you won’t be participating in Prime Day because you don’t have an Amazon Prime membership, this card may still be a worthy option for purchases on the occasions you do shop at Amazon as we’ll explain below.

The recently released no-annual-fee Wells Fargo Attune℠ World Elite Mastercard® has several bonus categories that offer an unlimited 4% cash rewards with one of them being “Select Sports, Recreation, and Entertainment.” As a part of that category, Attune cardholders earn 4% cash rewards at bookstores.

And isn’t it convenient that the biggest bookstore is Amazon.com? Of course, Amazon sells much more than books, but based on the CNBC Select team’s experiences and online reports, Mastercard codes purchases from Amazon.com and Amazon Marketplace (orders sold by third-party sellers) as a bookstore, which will qualify your spending on the Attune card to receive 4% back.

It gets better — if you have a Wells Fargo travel card like the $95-annual-fee Wells Fargo Autograph Journey℠ Card or the no-annual-fee Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card, you may be able to convert your cash rewards from the Attune into transferable travel points, potentially increasing the value of your rewards. So, you can effectively earn 4X travel rewards points on Amazon purchases year-round, which is unmatched.

Every business that accepts credit cards has a merchant category code, a four-digit number that the credit card issuers use to categorize them. As a consumer, knowing how your purchases code on your credit card can help you maximize your benefits and earn the best return possible on your spending. 

For instance, many credit cards offer bonus points on groceries but stores like Walmart or Target do not qualify because they are categorized as “superstores” as opposed to grocery stores or supermarkets. So you’d earn more rewards when you shop at those stores using a card that offers a flat 2X points on all spending versus one that offers 4X points on groceries and 1X points on other purchases. 

At the time of this writing, Mastercard codes Amazon and Amazon Marketplace purchases as MCC 5942, which is the merchant category code for bookstores. However, the MCC for Amazon purchases with a Mastercard could change at any time. For example, American Express categorizes Amazon purchases as “other.”

Certain purchases through Amazon may also code differently with Mastercard. For example. Prime Video is a different category because it’s streaming, though the Attune card also earns 4% back on streaming. Purchases from Amazon Fresh may be a different category as well.

If you want to be sure about receiving 4% back, you may want to do a smaller test purchase to see how it codes before you proceed with larger purchases.

For Prime members, 4% back on the Attune card comes in just under the 5% back you can get on your Amazon spending with the Prime Visa. 

Both the Attune card and Prime Visa have no annual fees, but the Prime Visa requires a Prime membership ($139 per year) to be eligible.

If you have the basic Amazon Visa without a Prime membership, you would only receive 3% back on Amazon spending versus the 5% return Prime members receive. Meanwhile, anyone can get a 4% return on Amazon spending with the Attune card.

The Wells Fargo Attune World Elite Mastercard gets a nod for offering a 0% intro APR on purchases for the first 12 months after account opening (20.24%, 25.24%, or 29.99% variable APR thereafter). This can be useful if you want to pay for your Amazon purchases over time without accruing interest.

In addition, rewards on the Prime Visa card are not as flexible as on the Attune card. Prime Visa points cannot be combined or converted to Chase’s Ultimate Rewards® points and transferred to travel partners. However, you can pair the Attune card with one of Wells Fargo’s Autograph credit cards to make the cash back transferrable to travel partners, which unlocks the ability to get higher-value redemptions from your rewards.

Even though the Attune offers a slightly lower return of 4% vs. 5% on the Prime Visa, the potential to transfer the points and take advantage of benefits like cell phone insurance and an introductory APR may give the Attune the edge for some.

If keeping track of bonus categories to maximize returns on your spending isn’t appealing to you or your credit needs some work, consider these other options for your Amazon purchases:

• Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card – This is a no-annual-fee card that offers a simple, unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases and it also has a 0% intro APR for 15 months from account opening on purchases and qualifying balance transfers (20.24%, 25.24%, or 29.99% Variable APR after). There’s a balance transfer intro fee of 3% intro for 120 days from account opening then up to 5%, min: $5.
• Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card – This is a no-annual-fee, cash-back card that offers 1.5% on every purchase. You only need a fair or average credit score to be approved for this card as opposed to the good or great credit score required by many other rewards cards.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every credit card article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit card products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

Catch up on CNBC Select’s in-depth coverage of credit cards, banking and money, and follow us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date.