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The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times (Collected Works of Rene Guenon)

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This is one of the most important books you will ever read.

Not easy reading - maybe the translation made it more difficult.

But absolutely worth the effort.

For those who have the ears to hear.

The Illusion of Ordinary Life as the Degenerative Path to the Catastrophic

From an understanding of Rene Guenon's `The Reign of Quantity'

In modern times we have all accepted a reality based solely on and limited to the five senses. During the past 6,000 years, the period known as the Kali Yuga, our innate abilities to perceive the Invisible Realms have atrophied to the point that most humans are incapable of even a remote awareness of, much less the Joy of interacting with, that which we cannot see, hear, touch, etc.

It is therefore understandable why most simply deny the very existence of such realities. They are not capable of perceiving them. The result of this disastrous defect of our comprehension has produced the ludicrous concept of ordinary life or real life, which in its absolute denial of anything beyond the five senses engulfs us all in total delusion.

Tragically, anything that is perceived beyond the accepted norm is regarded as weird, strange & bizarre, and is consequently relegated to a sort of carnival-freak-show, yellow-journalism state of mind, which derides believers for indulging in childish entertainment and titillation.

Such a deluded error is not only adolescent in its comprehension, but is also the densest of illusion because it ignores the underlying metaphysics that are the actual source of the external holographic matrix which we, in our limited state of consciousness, mistake for reality.

This confused and confining insistence on ordinary life has become more severe as time has drawn us down into the final stages of this cycle of time. As the Veils of Illusion have solidified around us, human consciousness on this planet has successfully degenerated into the aggressively empty, heartless, consumer society we currently inhabit barely half-alive.

The term `get real' is symptomatic of the toxic soup our brains are submerged in. We are mired in an integrated perceptual structure, a gestalt, an invisible sea of delusion that so completely permeates our thinking and our consciousness that we do not even begin to realize how cut off we are from our true nature and the multitude of Myriad Worlds. Rene Guenon uses the term multiple states of being.

We have become engulfed in 'quantity', in enumeration. We are devoted to measuring the endless surfaces of what we imagine to be solid matter. We have lost all connection to any truth beyond what we have come to accept as the human state. Frightened by what we consider non-human, or above human, supra-human, we term these experiences unreal and, to our great detriment, allow only what we judge to be real and sensible into our hologram.

Thus we have fallen into density and allowed our consciousness to be programmed and brainwashed. Human consciousness has become limited to the point of extinction.

The progressive degeneration of science and philosophy has brought us down to a common, as in mediocre, level of understanding of this world. In thus reducing everything to human terms, we have moved from rationalism to materialism. We are not merely human.

We are the precious fragments of Isness projected into Time and Space through the data-collecting vehicle that can be described as human, but is not limited to that. This gestalt of ignorance of our true being has, as Guenon brilliantly says, penetrated and impregnated the whole nature of the individual. We are completely submerged in our ignorance.

We have locked our consciousness in a very small, moldy, dark basement - a frequency prison created by us. This acceptance of quantifying surfaces as the be-all and end-all of knowledge has brought us to mechanism and materialism, and has given the priesthood of this absurdly limited so-called science an inordinate and totally undeserved control over our lives.

We believe almost anything our blinded-by-science hierarchal PhD priesthood imposes upon us. Despite the fact that these factual scientific oh-so-holy proclamations change almost daily in a never-ending mega-ego battle for warlike intellectual dominance and desperation for funding, we hang on to every soap-opera word of the latest ivory tower edicts.

Rene Guenon tells us that truth in modern times has been lost and replaced by utility and convenience. Science is no longer the pure search for truth, but the slave of commerce and industry. Science has become the servant of our consumer cravings and is dependent on producing profitable results for its survival.

Rather that holding these minions of corporate industry in high esteem and allowing them to dictate the atmosphere of our very being, these unfortunates who have been blinded-by-science should be regarded as what they are - beings whose God-given ability to perceive what lies beyond the five senses has atrophied, become functionally extinguished, and is now dead & gone!

Like stubborn children competing with each other for parental attention, these priests of science have become so blind that they are incapable of considering any idea outside of their own ego driven turf. They seem to have lost the ability to think in any other way.

The measurement of that which can be registered by the five senses, in the guise of modern science, may indeed go on ad nauseum forever; but in doing so, leaves us all skating on the thin ice of a miasma of amnesia - and in no way reflects the totality of existence.

The quantification of the material world without an understanding of the

Invisible Realms that support it, which in fact are the actual Source of such apparent solidity, is the degenerative path to the catastrophic conclusion of this cycle of time, the Kali Yuga, our current Age of Conflict and Confusion.

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How We Decide

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Don't just Blink! Instead, read a series of well-chosen, beautifully told stories of successful and unsuccessful decision practices, along with some rules of thumb for when to rely on emotions, or rigorous logic, or hold a long-term running debate in your head, or how to best mix emotions and logic when appropriate.

Since I was young, any discussion about how to make better decisions quickly turned into a debate between those who liked to follow the rules of logic and those who liked to wait until they get a good feeling about a choice. The reason that debate continued is that both sides are right, and wrong, part of the time. The good decision maker will know when to access which method. . . or to combine them. . . for the best results.

I found How We Decide to be the best introductory book I've read for helping anyone to improve decision practices, depending on the circumstances. For example:

1. When we have little time to decide, need to act, and are quite experienced, relying on our feelings will guide us to a typically high quality answer that our subconscious mind has already figured out. Try to logic that situation out, and we lose the benefit of the feeling and don't around to applying the logic properly.

2. When there are lots of variables and we have lots of time, but the decision isn't important, we can waste tremendous amounts of time comparing things until we eventually make a worse decision than if we went with our feeling-led intuition earlier on. We are particularly at risk in situations where our minds can be misled (we immediately like expensive items better than less expensive ones. . . even when they are objectively inferior, have a hard time resisting a bargain, and don't feel enough pain when we can pay with plastic).

3. When there's lots of uncertainty. . . even with keen logic applied, it's good to draw on both logic and those feelings. The combination will narrow down the choices into a more informed, higher quality choice.

4. Avoid situations where your brain will keep trying to find a pattern, making you feel good, even as your pocket is picked (such as when you play slot machines).

5. When there are only four variables to compare and it's an important decision, do all the analysis you want. . . if you have enough time.

6. Compare things first without knowing their prices (such as by tasting wine without knowing the brand). You'll make better choices and save a lot of money.

7. Get more people involved where incomplete perceptions and bias can lead to bad decisions (such as the former practice of letting airline pilots have too much authority in the cockpit during an emergency).

Jonah Lehrer also describes the latest research that explains why those conclusions are true. If you read a lot in the field, the research won't be new. If you don't read much on the subject, you'll find these studies to be interesting confirmation of the stories and suggested decision rules.

From what the author says in the acknowledgments, the editor did an excellent job on this book. Congratulations for suggesting many of these great stories!

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How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer, 2009

After being blown away by his previous book, Proust Was A Neuroscientist, on the relationship between brain science and art, I snapped up Lehrer's next one. Its purpose is to demonstrate the relationship between brain science and the way we make decisions in our everyday world.

It points out early that the old dichotomy that we all know and our western tradition has believed for the past three millennia is in fact false. That tradition is that the brain is divided between reason and emotion and that from Plato on forward we have been told we have to pay attention to reason because emotion leads us of the rails and has to be cajoled and bullied back into place by reason.

Wrongo. The brain is a prediction machine and conscious and unconscious factors lead people to made decisions, sometimes favouring the speed and experience of intuition and on other occasions mulling over the facts.

In this context, Lehrer uses compelling real life situations to make his points. How Tom Brady passed into the 'future' to win the Superbowl; how the radar tech felt a returning jet blip was wrong and ordered it downed, less than a half mile from a battle ship he was not on - it was a missile; how the mind is averse to loss and that we invest money in the stock market for bad reasons; that superstar basketball players do not get on streaks of success; and so on.

Early on, Lehrer points out that a brain injury patient who has the connection between the subconscious and conscious centre (behind the right eyebrow) severed cannot make decisions because without emotional preferences consciousness has no way of determining which action to take. Then he gets into the dopamine system that makes us feel pleasure, but at the same time tells us when something is wrong (the blip being an enemy missile rather than one of us good guys in a fighter jet) by stimulating long slender spindle cells that go all over the brain so we get the jolt simultaneously. Interestingly enough these 'emotion' sensors are only found in higher primates, and humans have 40 times more than our closest monkey friends, pretty conclusive proof that our emotions are a highly flexible system for real time predictions with a mistake recognition loop for improving our expectations for the life we move into.

Intelligent intuition is the result of deliberate practice. That is the conclusion of one of the best chess, backgammon and poker players in the world, Bill Robertie. If you want to improve, review your mistakes. Lehrer even tells you how to stop spending so much on so many credit cards, based on brain science of the small 'insula' in the brain that recognizes negative feelings - it's far harder to hand across cash than plastic. Got suckered in the 'sub-prime' mortgage debacle? There's a brain region for that, too. And Herman Palmer, a New York debt counselor (part of the every day use of this book) says, '. read only the fine print," on credit card come-ons.

On mulling the facts, in a crisis, Chapter 4: The Uses of Reason has a stellar section in it about two pilots trying to save their DC-10 (no not because of the faulty baggage door that put the company out of business) from crashing, pages 120 - 132. This tells you how the brain works through a problem when terrified, and coming to a counterintuitive conclusion that has never existed before when 500 lives, most importantly your own, is at stake.

Chapter 5: Choking on Thought, is about how when we think over something we know well, that we inhibit our conscious attention and we choke. This is intended to further develop the intuition, subconscious part of decision making. For my tastes, this was a tad repetitive, and perhaps too many scientific studies to make the same point several times. But, interesting stories, nonetheless, for example, it has been conclusively shown that MRI examinations for lower back pain have resulted in more than 50% more 'invasive' incorrect outcomes from doctors because our conscious centre in the right prefrontal area can only handle, get this, seven different factors before its ability to make decisions goes down the tube and we make worse decisions. And you thought the brain worked like a computer. Wrong.

Chapter 6 is about how we make ethical discriminations. Kant, Descartes and lawyers won't be happy to know it doesn't take a lot of rational thought to make moral decisions. It turns out that we are hardwired to do so. We get the feeling, and then the rational mind makes up reasons to explain the feeling. This is because mammals need the warm feeling of mothers and others from the first moment to turn out okay. Our minds innately sympathize with others, empathize, then make altruistic decisions based on, actually, not wanting to see others suffer. We have active emotional reactions from our amygdyla, mirror cells that key in on others expressions so we experience the feeling, then our fusiform area recognizes particular people, and unlike psychopaths who do not feel, an amygdyla problem, or autists who cannot recognize the facial features that mean certain emotions and we want innately are wired to theorize that others are like us. These areas make us imbue others with emotion. It's not about rational thought at all; that comes later in the justification stage. Interestingly, if we are deprived of others our abilities to empathize and take actions to help others go way down, so think about various types of child abuse that change people when they most need those various centres to be turned on, nurtured and grown. Fascinating chapter. Oh, and all you parents who have been deprived of your child or lost a child feel intense pain because of simple hormones that also regulate water level in the body - vasopressin and oxytocin. Such a loss wipes most people out for the rest of their lives.

The collected wisdom of How We Decide comes on pages 244 - 250, but the book is much more fascinating than the summary. And The Coda puts neatly the mesh between the experience (emotion) and reasoning (conscious thought) components of our thoughts. Both have their specialties and both are required all day long every day.

Amazon Seller Central reviews

202 Reviews From Our Community

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I've been struggling with seller central for years. I've wasted many many hours trying to get Amazon to correct our listings, set up our taxes correctly, and treat A-Z cases fairly. Usually these phone calls end with getting statements like, "This issue will be fixed in 48 hours" however when I check 48 hours later the issue is still not fixed. I will then spend another hour or two explaining the same issue to a new representative. This type of back and forth usually lasts for 1-2 weeks until I just give up. We are a US and Canadian business and have large sales volume through Amazon giving them good business. However, it seems like Amazon doesn't care much about helping us sell our product.

Horrible company! Treat their sellers like garbage. They are customer focussed at the expense of their sellers. If you are not FBA they will push your items to the bottom but to be in the FBA programme you end up losing a lot of money plus they refund items that shoudnt be refunded leaving massive losses.

They are constantly working against sellers so that they can have more buyers at the sellers expense. Sponsored products is another ploy to get sellers to waste massive fnds and at the end sellers find that they are working for Amazon and making massive losses at the end of the day.

When you add up all the cost of selling and advertising the Amazon is actually making more than 30% of the sale price. Customers - this is why you spend more on goods purchased on Amazon, its not becauseits better quality! Honest.

OPened up a sellers account about a month ago and sold an item nearly everyday. They stated that payment will be done 7 days after estimated delivery time. I never received a complaint from a customer or never got a bad review. I emailed them again asking that I still have not received any payments yet and they suspended my account claiming that I submitted to change my account details. Now they have deactivated it for no reason at all and still have not paid me! Stay away from amazon selling page as they do not pay out.

No resolution but general apologizing replies. CSRs have no education/knowledge and often do not use common sense. After many frustrations moving my business to Walmart.

Amazon may be a good place to do your shopping, but for sellers, it's a nightmare. Amazon's customer support is one of the most incompetent you'll ever find in any company. Whatever your problem, their solution is a copy-pasted answer which often is not even relevant. Most of the times they create unnecessary problems and I always end up complaining to the BBB website to get my issue solved. And only after that, they will bother to solve your problems. I think Amazon should be regulated and a governmental body should be in charge of overseeing Amazon complaints

Amazon do not care about small sellers, no help from the non existant support service, no emails sent back to me despite them saying I would have them and a faulty account dashboard. It's like they do not want you to sell on there. I finally gave up and closed my account. And don't bother selling on ebay either as they only support large sellers and charge high fee's for a useless bug riddled platform.

I spent $39.99 on a service I never got. when starting up your seller's account they have someone call you who should help you for the next couple of weeks. the guy called once and we felt rushed over the phone he wasn't helpful at all. when said he is there to help and will call us for the next 2 weeks we heard nothing. amazon then suspend our account for no reason after sending them 5 emails still no response. they took our money and didn't even respond. we paid for a service we never got. shame

I don't even know where to begin. This whole system is set up to make you fail. There is so much petty bull$#*! that goes on between sellers on Amazon that literally happens nowhere else. Everything from baseless IP complaints to sellers buying competitors inventory just to damage it and return it. And Amazon facilities all of it and good $#*!ing luck getting support or the seller performance team to respond. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten baseless IP complaints, sent Amazon the proper documentation, had the compaints removed only to literally the next day have the Same complaint back on my account that I just had approved! It's the equivalent of being a accused of a crime, winning the case and the next day being accused again of the same crime you were just acquitted of. It should not be happening several times in a row. Things can take hours, days, weeks or often months to resolve. It's complete Insanity. I refuse to continue to participate in this circus that is the Amazon selling platform and lucky I only put in a year on Amazon compared to some of these horror stories. And sure there are plenty of others that are doing just fine, but to them I would say.. it's only a matter of time before something happens to you. No matter how much you make or how much tenure you have. You aren't safe. There are a variety of other platforms to sell on where this nonsense doesn't occur. I would Invest your long term efforts into one of them.

Amazon needs to get knocked down to a small size. I have 3 brads that I can't sell. They say I need manufactors approval. I don't buy from manufactors. My stock is real original from auction, closeouts ect. all new.

Had 2 items pulled for "Suspected Intellectual Property Violations". The companies haven't made these products in 50 years. I think those kids they hire have to prove they are doing something. And those buyers. changed mine! don't need it any more. sending it back. And I get to pay shipping both ways. Listing products is very complicated. I'll stick with Ebay,

Tip for consumers: If your buying on Amazon, you can steel most anything. If your selling you will have your products stollen.

Amazon has taken unauthorised payments and does not refund. Terrible service from people who do not speak English.

There does not seem to be a complaints procedure.

I have been selling on Amazon for several years. The rules recently changed and several of my listings are now in violation. They emailed me with a case number and told me to fix the issues and email them once I completed it. I did that and 2 weeks later no response. I had to google Amazon customer service number because the phone number was nowhere to be found on the website. Only a complicated format of type your question and search for answers. I called customer service and was told they can't help me. I have to email customer service for sellers and they can give me a link. They said there is NO phone number to seller help. As a seller I was paying them $39.99 a month for the privilege of selling on Amazon plus fees when I sell a product. But I can't talk to anyone when I have a problem and I can't get an email response. I have opened multiple cases. It's difficult just getting past the bs maybe there's already an answer to your question search engine. Once you do you open a case. They respond that you need to email *****@amazon. com and close my case basically. I reopen the case. I do another case. I tell them I have emailed. I have fixed the issues. I DON'T know what else to do. Horrible horrible horrible seller support! I can't even call it support. It's nothing! It's worse than nothing!

I have been trying to list a simple product on amazon and it just does'nt let me post it. It is unnecessarily complicated with poor interface. Will switch ebay account instead.

I have been paying for Amazon Seller Central for over two months. I competed all the set up, pricing, images, keywords, everything. My product never showed up on Amazon. No results from any keywords or even my brand name. Amazon suggested I pay for FBA (fulfillment by amazon) - I don't need this and they take a significant amount of revenue share in addition to all the other fees. Shipped my product, met their requirements, inventory showed as "arrived" and "available" by Amazon. No search results for my product - nothing. Now they suggest I place ads for more fees - then I should magically appear on Amazon - just like I was promised with FBA. No customer service, no Help menus resulting in anything related to this topic and not getting anywhere when I finally connect with anyone by email. They offer sales options and next steps to a better life in Amazon but no product appearance.

TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND CASH.

Worse they have thousands of dollar of my product with no clear path on how to get it back.

For being a huge company, I was surprise how they are all over the place with their web pages. If you haven't experience it, its like reading a newspaper or a book with no page number or table of contents. There's links after links that just seem ridiculous and useless. To sell, after my 30th time logging in, there is no simple way to get to my selling inventory, its the one link they don't have as I sign on. What makes matters worst, is that they do investigations on you that take days to get approved and yet you have to pay them this monthly fee for you to be accepted. Insane. . If you try modifying shipping to you have to go to what seems a created template first to create shipping pricing. Then, much much worst, I post a product I bought from a manufacture and Amazon says its possible counterfeit and I had to get documentation and send to them. Instead of them proving my item was counterfeit, I had to prove to them it wasn't. Then it got complicated, I send them, purchase orders, certificates, approvals and a personal letter from manufacture and it seem there was just a robot reading these documents because I kept on getting 3 emails day, 1 saying they don't understand the case matter, 2nd they have not receive documents, 3rd email saying they did not accept my documents, my approved manufacturing documents. Frustrating. I set up Ebay and it was the WOW experience after dealing with amazon. Buy / Sell straight the point. Log on and there it is. Easy to setup. Add more products in a 1,2,3 setup; for shipping, you indicated as part of the option and for how much. I don't recommend amazon. One thing I did realize is DONT BUY AT AMAZON EITHER. ALL PRICES GET RAISED because of their fees and leg work they make you do. The only product I tried selling, I was selling for 30% more to offset everything from amazon compare to ebay. I was able to sell for less at ebay and make same profits. when you buy or sell compare amazon and ebay. You will LOVE ebay. Im not paid to say this, just my own experience.

Amazon disconnected the seller support line. That's no way to operate a business - only Amazon can get away with it. until they have competition.

Very bad experience, first is my account suspension right after I set up the account, then it is the uploading experience of the products. then it is the FBA fulfillment. Headache and I still have to pay $39.90 monthly.

I tried to start an individual account as a way to dip a toe into selling books on Amazon. They force you to choose a professional account ($39.99 per month) and then my account was suspended after literally 10 minutes (mind you, I hadn't listed or sold anything at all or even figured out the seller central system yet). Now, my account is frozen so that I have no way to downgrade or remove my credit card information so that they can't change me their monthly fee for nothing, which is insane. This is just a way for Amazon to make money from sellers!

I buy product from alibaba and send amazon fba, but they told me they lost the products and refund me lower price not including shipping fee. Amazon fba they send wrong order to customer, I got negative feedback. Customer support is poor, amazon fba will stole your product. I have really bad experience with them. I lost $1100.

I tried setting up an account. The representative told me I would have to buy a $100 card to get it verified. This entire thing feels like a fraud.

Sellers support is inexistant.

We sold on *****@ckazon exclusive electronic products made by our company and paid between 2500 and 3500 EUR of transaction fees every month and had a perfect 100% customers satisfaction.

However *****@ackazon don't give a *****@ack that we pay as much. They don't provide ANY SUPPORT or help to sellers.

During the last 6 month on mere that seven thousand orders, two scam "buyers" has opened claims under "A-to-Z Guarantee" and said that they haven't received their orders.

We supplied to *****@ckazon proofs of delivery with customers SIGNATURES, but guess what. *****@kazone has allready refunded those scammers taking money from our balance.

We send them multiple emails asking for explanation, but only received automatic emails like ". the claim has been closed. Buyer has received fullrefund." all those damn automatic email from thier "performance team" just telling: " *****@ck-off and don't try to contact us. "we are" just a stupid software and we don't read your emails anyway. "

Those *****@stards simply suspended our account with 12790 EUR balance on it. because of those 2 scammers, and they asking us to provide an "action plan" .

When we call them by phone, they say, an agent will contact you by mail, and we receiving same damn automatic email by amzon software, over and over again.

*****@ack you *****@ckazone!

Here is our "Action Plan" - We will sue your damn company and you will NEVER see any cent from our company spent on your stupid website.

Amazon. com Credit Card Review (2019)

Store Credit Card

Founded in 1994 as an online bookstore, Amazon. com soon diversified into entertainment and software, later adding popular goods, like apparel, furniture, and toys. In just a few years, Amazon became the world's largest online retailer and a household name. Today, Amazon users can find just about anything on the site, including both new and used products from dozens of categories, from food to furniture and nearly everything in between.

For the avid Amazonians whose first stop is their handy Amazon app when shopping for, well, just about anything, the Amazon. com Store Card can be a great addition to the wallet. While the card offers special financing deals to all users, cardholders who are also Amazon Prime members will reap the biggest rewards — literally. Amazon Prime members who are also Amazon. com Store Cardholders can earn cash back on every Amazon purchase.

Amazon. com Card Overall Rating: 4.1/5.0

Looking at the Amazon. com Store Card's 26.99% APR, it's clear this card isn't made for those who need to carry a balance — or is it? Cardholders who need longer-term financing for their major Amazon purchases can actually find some good deals with their Amazon Store Card.

Specifically, you can receive six - or 12-month interest-free financing on purchases equal to, or more than, $149 and $599, respectively. You can also enjoy special 24-month financing on select Amazon-sold items.

While financing can be lucrative, the real value of the Amazon. com Store Card is saved for Amazon Prime members, who are automatically upgraded to the Amazon. com Prime Store Card and become eligible to earn 5% cash back rewards on eligible Amazon purchases made with their card. Rewards can be redeemed toward qualifying Amazon. com purchases or as a one-time statement credit to your credit card account.

Amazon. com Credit Card

APR: 26.99% as of Jul 2019 Annual Fee: $0 Rewards: Special financing on orders of $149 or more

Some caveats of which to be aware when it comes to your Amazon. com Store Card include the fact that only Amazon Prime members will receive the 5% cash back option.

Furthermore, to avoid paying fees on your financing deals, you'll need to pay off your entire financed balanced before the end of the interest-free period. If any of your balance remains when time runs out, you'll be charged interest for the entire purchase amount, regardless of how much you've paid off.

Finally, if you are eligible for both the 5% cash back rewards as well as special financing, you'll have to select which option you'd like to use for that purchase. If your purchase is large enough to qualify for special financing, that option may be selected by default, so double-check which benefit you're using before completing your purchase. Amazon won't switch your benefits for a purchase after it's been completed.

Approval Requirements & Application

Although the Amazon. com Store Card is easiest to obtain for those with at least fair credit, a number of cardholders report being accepted with credit scores around the 600 range. Unsurprising for an online retailer, interested consumers can apply for the Amazon. com Store Card through Amazon's website using the link below.

Better Cards to Use at Amazon. com

With millions of products from a huge range of categories, Amazon's offerings definitely seem as vast as the river after which the company was named. At the same time, there are still some things Amazon doesn't have — including the ability to try on items before you buy. And while those in larger cities can get one-day delivery and fresh food, the rest of us are stuck going to the old-fashioned brick-and-mortar stores for our everyday necessities.

Given the limitations of the Amazon. com Store Card, anyone who won't get their money's worth out of a Prime membership will likely see little return from investing in an Amazon. com Store Card. The better alternative for less-than-frequent Amazonians will be a more utilitarian card that can be used to buy — and earn rewards — in places like gas stations and grocery stores, as well as for the occasional Amazon purchase.

While the rewards offered by the Amazon. com Store Card can be valuable for Prime members, the annual $99 cost of a Prime membership can cut into your rewards. An all-around cash back credit card can offer fairly robust rewards, as well as the flexibility to earn cash back just about anywhere you like to shop.

Plus, if most of your Amazon shopping occurs around the holidays, you can likely find a card offering bonus cash back on fourth-quarter Amazon purchases, no Prime required.

Chase Freedom Unlimited®

CASH BACK RATING

OVERALL RATING

Earn a $150 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases. 0% Intro APR for 15 months from account opening on purchases and balance transfers, then a variable APR of 16.74-25.49%. 3% intro balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 60 days your account is open, with a minimum of $5 No annual fee Free credit score, updated weekly with Credit Journey℠

See application, terms and details.

If the financing options of the Amazon. com Store Card are appealing, you'll likely enjoy a credit card with an introductory 0% APR offer. These great deals can be used to make interest-free purchases anywhere your card is accepted — including Amazon. com. Even better, you won't have to meet a minimum spending requirement to enjoy your intro APR deal, nor will you need to pay off your entire balance to avoid back-charged interest fees.

Chase Freedom Unlimited®

0% INTRO APR RATING

OVERALL RATING

Earn a $150 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases. 0% Intro APR For 15 months from account opening on purchases and balance transfers, then a variable APR of 16.74-25.49%. 3% intro balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 60 days your account is open, with a minimum of $5 No annual fee Free credit score, updated weekly with Credit Journey℠

See application, terms and details.

Travel Rewards

If you've ever wanted to make the leap from simply shopping Amazon to taking a grand adventure through the Amazon, then a great travel rewards card may be just the ticket. You can earn points or miles redeemable toward hotel stays and airfare so you get out from behind the screen and start exploring life unplugged. Jump-start your journey by taking advantage of an awesome signup bonus.

Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card

AIR MILES RATING

OVERALL RATING

Enjoy a one-time bonus of 50,000 miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $500 in travel Earn 2X miles on every purchase, every day. Plus earn 10X miles on thousands of hotels, through January 2020; learn more at hotels. com/venture Named ‘The Best Travel Card' by CNBC, 2018 Receive up to $100 application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✔® Fly any airline, stay at any hotel, anytime; no blackout dates. Plus transfer your miles to over 12 leading travel loyalty programs Miles won't expire for the life of the account and there's no limit to how many you can earn

See application, terms and details.

Unless you have an Amazon Prime membership to unlock its lucrative rewards, the Amazon. com Store Card likely won't offer a ton of value, especially if you don't typically spend more than $149 per purchase or need special financing. A rewards card that can be used to earn cash back or points on everyday purchases or an intro APR card with universal application will provide more flexibility and be a better addition to your wallet in the long run.

What Others Say About the Amazon. com Credit Card

Few people likely know the power of the review as well as Amazon users — and the Amazon. com Store Card is no exception!

Checking out reviews from around the web, including what current Amazon. com reviewers think of the retailer's namesake card, it's clear that everyone loves the 5% cash back option for Prime members, but many complain due to issues making payments, primarily that the issuing bank seems incompatible with other banks, regularly causing payments to be rejected.

This card does not even deserve a single star. I've lost maybe 3-4 hours on the phone and online chats because of their inconvenience. I've used the same checking account every time I make a payment and they would blame my personal bank for rejecting my payments. They charged me interest and late fees on payments I've made before the due date but because they choose to reject those payments, they penalized me for it. Calling in is a waste of time because they are RUDE and when I called them out for it, they would defend themselves and refuse to transfer me to upper management. They said they've sent me letters to my home and I confirmed my address with 3-4 agents and til this day no letters ever arrive with my account information. I thought that since I order so much from Amazon, why not get the Store Card. This was the worse decision of my life! I just made my last payment to them, and I hope they don't reject this one because I am soooo done with them. — WalletHub. com

I was initially approved for the Amazon Prime Store Card with a 631 TU and a 644 EQ. 6 months later, I am at a 679 and 690, respectively. I have nothing but a good experience with this card. I have yet to need technical support as the website is easy to navigate; it's very easy to make a payment and I can see all of my statements, past balances and payments, and current information. It also keeps you updated on the balance of any products you have financed using the store card. I have called customer service once to change my address and phone number on file and the woman I spoke to was very pleasant and engaged and knew what she was doing. It was done in a few minutes and I was on my way. The card itself has a bit of a high interest rate, but I haven't carried a balance as I only use this card for financing with their 6-, 12-, and 24-month interest-free plans. I would recommend the Amazon Prime Store Card to somebody who is looking for a way to make interest free payments on items such as tv's, cameras, mattresses, etc, as that's been my primary use and it's worked really well for me. I would not recommend the Amazon Prime Store Card to anyone who finds it hard to keep up with payments or tends to carry a balance. This card is really great for financing, but not so great for regular purchases due to its high interest rate. Overall, I do love this card. — CreditKarma. com

I spend tens of thousands of dollars with Amazon every year, so the prospect of getting 5% back on purchases is significant. What I don't like is that Amazon/Synchrony recently changed the default "benefit" on purchases over a certain dollar volume. While the default used to be 5% cash back, now the default is 6 months free financing of the purchase (and NO 5% cash back.). I have no interest (pun intended) in their free financing. Last month I had over $1K of purchases where I neglected to change the benefit option to 5% cash back. As a result these purchases got "6 months free financing." I pay the credit card bill in full every month so my effective benefit was 0. Lost out on $ 50 cash back on these purchases alone. I complained to Amazon and customer service claims that there is a way to change this default behavior, but that isn't true. I just have to remember to check the benefit on each purchase to make sure it says "5% cash back." — Amazon. com

Is the Amazon. com Card Right for You?

If your Amazon Prime account is your best friend and that iconic grinning logo graces your front door on a regular basis, the Amazon. com Store Card might just be a win. For those who prefer the hands-on shopping experience, or who prefer a rewards card they can use anywhere they shop — because, let's face it, Amazon still doesn't have everything — then an open-loop credit card from your favorite issuer will probably be a better option.

Editorial Note: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.