U.S. Bank's New Amazon Business Card: What the 3%/2% Rewards Actually Mean

Starting with replacement cards usable August 14, 2026, U.S. Bank takes over as issuer of the Amazon Business Card from American Express. If you don't carry Amazon Prime, the new version earns 3% back at Amazon.com, AWS, and Whole Foods, 2% back automatically on your top 3 off-Amazon spending categories, and 1% on everything else. Prime members get bumped to 5% on that same Amazon-covered spend through the separate Prime Business Card. Each of those two buckets — Amazon-covered spend and the top-3 category bonus — carries its own $150,000 annual cap; cross either one and the rate on that bucket drops to 1% until the calendar year resets. Existing cardholders are auto-migrated: no new application, no new credit pull, and accrued rewards carry over.

How to think about this change

Don't treat this as "Amazon swapped logos on the same card." It didn't. The old Amex version was a flat-rate Amazon card. The new U.S. Bank version is a hybrid card — a fixed Amazon rate plus a dynamic category bonus that adjusts every billing cycle based on where you're actually spending. A flat-rate card rewards you for showing up. A dynamic-category card rewards you for spending in concentrated lanes — software subscriptions, shipping, advertising, whatever your top 3 categories happen to be that cycle. If your spend is scattered across a dozen categories with no clear top 3, the 2% bonus does less for you than it looks like on paper.

Also worth separating in your head: there are now two Amazon-branded U.S. Bank cards, not one. The Amazon Business Card is for business owners without a Prime membership and earns 3% on Amazon-covered purchases. The Prime Business Card is for Prime members and earns 5% on that same spend. If you're comparing your card to a colleague's and the numbers don't match, that's almost certainly why.

Old vs. new: what actually changed

A couple of mechanics worth flagging directly from U.S. Bank's program rules: your top 3 categories are recalculated each billing cycle by category code, based on combined spend across all cardmembers on the account — so if your team's spending shifts month to month, your 2% categories shift with it. Once you cross the $150,000 cap on that category bonus in a calendar year, those purchases drop to 1% starting the next billing cycle until the year resets. That cap is separate from the $150,000 cap on Amazon/AWS/Whole Foods spend — hitting one doesn't push you past the other. No retroactive bonus gets applied to anything you already charged before either cap kicked in.

Step-by-step: what to actually do about this

1. Confirm your card status. If you already have the Amazon Business Card, you're being auto-migrated — no new application or credit pull. Watch your mail and Amazon account notifications for the replacement card timeline.
2. Mark August 14, 2026 on your calendar. That's when Amazon says the replacement card becomes usable. Don't cut up the old card before then, and don't assume the new one works on day one of the announcement.
3. Check whether you're on the right card. If you have Prime and you're holding the standard Amazon Business Card, you're earning 3% where the Prime Business Card would pay 5% on the same Amazon spend.
4. Pull your last 2-3 billing cycles and identify your actual top categories. The 2% bonus is automatic, but knowing what it's tracking tells you whether to route more spend through this card or through something else.
5. Track your net purchases against each $150,000 cap separately. The Amazon/AWS/Whole Foods cap and the top-3 category cap are independent — hitting one doesn't affect where you stand on the other.
6. Decide how you're redeeming. U.S. Bank's rules give the business owner sole authority to redeem, with options including a statement credit or Shop with Points. Pick one deliberately rather than letting points sit. They don't expire while the account stays open and in good standing, but there's no upside to leaving a redemption decision unmade indefinitely.

Worked example

Say your business runs $80,000 a year through Amazon Business, AWS, and Whole Foods combined, and another $60,000 a year through software subscriptions, shipping, and paid ads — the kind of spend that typically lands in a top-3 category.

• Amazon-covered spend: $80,000 × 3% = $2,400 (under the $150,000 cap for that bucket)
• Top-3 category spend: $60,000 × 2% = $1,200 (under its own separate $150,000 cap)
• Combined rewards from these two buckets: roughly $3,600 for the year, before whatever you spend outside them at 1%

If you're already paying for Amazon Prime for other reasons, switching to the Prime Business Card would push that first $2,400 up to $4,000 (5% instead of 3%) on identical spend — worth weighing against what Prime costs your business annually before you decide which card to carry.

Not sure this card is pulling its weight next to what else is in your wallet? Take the credit card quiz to see how it stacks up against your actual spending profile.

Keep reading