Maybe a silly question? Amazon Prime Store Card Credit Builder

[Anonymous]

I'm usually pretty decent with understanding terms and maybe this is obvious...but looking for clarification.

I have relatives provided the option to buy with 'equal pay' even if they don't have an Amazon card; they just make equal payments on their regular debit or credit card.  At the point of purchase, Amazon doesn't authorize for the full amount.

Does it work that way for the Amazon Store Card/Credit Builder card?  Meaning if my limit is 1,000 and I want to purchase a 1,200 item, they won't try to authorize for full amount if I use the Equal Payments option?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

I haven't seen Amazon equal payments lately, I've only seen the card offers.

The card will get charged the full amount and then you are responsible for paying the equal pay amount every month.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I haven't seen Amazon equal payments lately, I've only seen the card offers.

The card will get charged the full amount and then you are responsible for paying the equal pay amount every month.

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Yep. I tested this on my Prime Visa. The whole amount is charged up front, and the monthly payment gets added to the standard minimum if you have other charges. I believe, depending on the options, it is counted separately from charges that could incur interest.

[Anonymous]

I fail to really see the benefit to equal pay vs standard deferred interest financing. Just seems like you're locking yourself in to a fixed payment with no flexibility but a guarantee to pay it off in the given time period. Am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

In some cases equal pay could offer lower payments. Say you charge $150. With equal pay that can be spread out over 6 months at $25. Same works out with $600 for 24 months. With financing, you would have to pay the minimum of $35 each month; at least in the case of the Visa.

I'm not sure how the payments are applied with the financing if you have other balances, so that could complicate things. The Equal Pay balances are in addition to any other minimums iirc.

But yeah. I agree. Provided one has the discipline to keep things straight, they both work out about the same in the end.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In some cases equal pay could offer lower payments. Say you charge $150. With equal pay that can be spread out over 6 months at $25. Same works out with $600 for 24 months. With financing, you would have to pay the minimum of $35 each month; at least in the case of the Visa.

I'm not sure how the payments are applied with the financing if you have other balances, so that could complicate things. The Equal Pay balances are in addition to any other minimums iirc.

But yeah. I agree. Provided one has the discipline to keep things straight, they both work out about the same in the end.

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I think Synchrony requires the minimum payment regardless... In fact this was one of the things that ticked a lot of people off with the takeover of PayPal Credit was the fact that you could no longer actually spread $99 out over 6 months thanks to the mandatory minimum payment.

They do let you pick how payments are applied. Default setting is minimum payment goes to highest APR, beyond minimum goes to lowest except in the last two months of a deferred period, all payments go to that offer. They have the option to put all payments toward deferred interest first and they have an option for all payments to go to purchases first and then deferred interest except in the last two months of a deferred offer where they will go to the deferred payment.

I guess given how convoluted that was just to type, I can see the appeal of having equal pay lol. I have my card set to pay purchases first so I don't get hit with interest on regular purchases when I have a deferred offer on there but for simplicity sake, I would probably switch to another card for that time period. I guess equal pay would avoid that entirely.