Amazon on May 13, 2026, launched two new business credit cards - the Prime Business Card and the Amazon Business Card - ending its long-running partnership with American Express and moving to U.S. Bank as issuer and the Mastercard network for processing. The cards are now open to new applicants and mark a structural shift in how Amazon packages financial services for its eight million-plus business customers worldwide.

The switch from American Express to U.S. Bank and Mastercard is not a cosmetic change. It rewires the reward architecture, introduces installment financing that previously did not exist on a no-annual-fee Amazon business card, and adds an automatic savings layer through the Mastercard network. Current Amazon Business American Express cardholders keep their existing cards and rewards until August 14, 2026, when replacement cards arrive and accumulated rewards carry over.

What changed and what stayed the same

The headline figures are familiar. Prime Business Card holders with an active Prime membership earn 5% back on U.S. purchases up to $150,000 annually from Amazon Business, Amazon.com, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Whole Foods Market. Customers without Prime can use the Amazon Business Card, which returns 3% on the same Amazon-family purchases up to the same $150,000 annual ceiling. Both rates match what the prior American Express card offered on Amazon purchases.

What is genuinely new is the rewards structure outside Amazon. For the first time on a card in this product family with no annual fee, cardholders automatically earn 2% back on purchases in their top three eligible spending categories each statement cycle, plus 1% on all other purchases beyond Amazon, up to $150,000 annually. According to Amazon, the top three categories are determined automatically each billing cycle based on actual spending - requiring no manual selection by the cardholder. The intent is to ensure the highest-spending categories always attract the higher rate, which differs from fixed-category cards where cardholders must predict where they will spend.

Travel rewards are also enhanced. According to Amazon, Prime Business Card holders earn 5% back on travel booked through the U.S. Bank Travel Center, while Amazon Business Card holders earn 3% on the same bookings. That stacks alongside the adaptive category rewards, giving frequent travelers a specific booking channel where the highest rates apply.

Installment financing at 0% APR

Perhaps the most substantive new feature is Equal Monthly Installments. Cardholders can split eligible Amazon purchases into fixed monthly payments at 0% APR for up to 12 months, in lieu of earning rewards on those specific transactions. No annual fee is required to access this option. The trade-off is explicit: the cardholder either takes the reward percentage or takes the interest-free installment plan on a given purchase, not both.

This mechanism addresses cash flow management in a direct way. A business buying server equipment, office furniture, or bulk office supplies from Amazon Business can spread the cost across up to a year without paying interest, provided they forego the rewards credit on that transaction. The option is not available on all purchases - Amazon specifies "eligible Amazon purchases" without enumerating every category in the announcement.

For small businesses juggling uneven revenue cycles, the 0% installment structure can reduce reliance on short-term credit lines that carry interest. The introduction of this feature on a no-annual-fee card is notable because interest-free installment plans have historically appeared on premium cards with higher fees or as promotional offers tied to specific Amazon programs like Prime Rewards Financing.

Spend management without a corporate platform

The new cards bring spend visibility tools that Amazon says previously required a dedicated corporate expense platform or high-fee card product. The Prime Business Card and Amazon Business Card both include access to Amazon Business tools and U.S. Bank Spend Management. In practice, that means real-time tracking with itemized reports enriched by Amazon transaction details - including cost per item and quantity for purchases made on Amazon Business.

Administrators can set spending limits and approval rules, issue physical cards with defined parameters, and generate unlimited virtual cards with customizable spend restrictions and expiration dates. Virtual cards with custom expiration dates are particularly useful for vendor relationships where the business wants to cap liability on a specific supplier or project without issuing a general-purpose card.

According to Shelley Salomon, vice president of Amazon Business, "We heard from business customers that they wanted more from their card - more rewards outside of Amazon, more flexibility in how they pay, and more control over how their teams spend. The new Prime Business Card and Amazon Business Card are our answer: rewards that automatically adapt to each customer's spending, interest-free installment options, and built-in spend management tools - all with no annual fee."

This framing is consistent with Amazon Business's broader trajectory. Amazon Business launched an AI assistant for organizational purchasing in November 2025, introducing analytics tools to automate routine procurement tasks and surface cost-saving opportunities. The new cards extend that logic into the payment layer, embedding visibility and control directly into the transaction instrument rather than requiring a separate analytics subscription.

U.S. Bank's role and its scale

U.S. Bank is the fifth-largest commercial bank in the United States, headquartered in Minneapolis. Its parent company, U.S. Bancorp, serves 15 million clients across the U.S., Canada, and Europe with a team of nearly 70,000 people. It ranks 105th on the Fortune 500. Taking on the Amazon business credit card portfolio places U.S. Bank inside one of the largest B2B commerce relationships in U.S. retail.

According to Courtney Kelso, senior executive vice president and head of payments, consumer and small business at U.S. Bank, "U.S. Bank has spent decades building trusted relationships with America's small business owners, and this partnership allows us to extend that commitment at unprecedented scale. We're not just offering a credit card - we're delivering a comprehensive financial toolkit that helps business owners manage cash flow, maximize rewards, and access the credit they need to seize opportunities when they arise."

Kelso also noted this is an early milestone: "This is just the beginning - cardholders can look forward to even more value as we introduce additional U.S. Bank services designed specifically for their needs." That language suggests additional product integrations between U.S. Bank and Amazon Business may follow the initial card launch.

Mastercard network: 100 million locations and AI fraud monitoring

The cards run on the Mastercard network, accepted at more than 100 million locations worldwide. Beyond basic acceptance, the cards carry World Elite Mastercard benefits and access to Easy Savings - an automatic rebate program covering everyday business expenses including gas, dining, and travel at more than 50,000 locations worldwide. Rebates under Easy Savings are applied automatically, without requiring coupon codes or manual enrollment in offers.

Security infrastructure on the Mastercard network includes AI-powered fraud monitoring and Zero Liability protection, meaning cardholders are not held responsible for unauthorized transactions. Mastercard's architecture layers tokenization, cybersecurity systems, and real-time insights to flag potential threats before transactions complete.

According to Eimear Creaven, president of global partnerships at Mastercard, "Businesses today are digital-first and operating in an increasingly complex global marketplace - they need partners that help them run and grow their business every day. With built-in security, global acceptance and automatic savings on the expenses they rely on most, these cards deliver real, everyday value - so business owners can focus less on managing payments and more on moving their business forward."

No foreign transaction fees apply on either card, which matters for businesses purchasing internationally or operating across borders. Together with the 100-million-location acceptance footprint, the zero foreign transaction fee structure removes a cost layer that smaller business cards typically include.

The Amazon Business context

Amazon Business launched in the United States in 2015 and has grown to serve more than eight million organizations globally, operating across 11 countries. The platform targets procurement and business leaders with bulk purchasing options, business-only pricing, single and multi-user account structures, approval workflows, and purchasing system integrations. The new credit cards slot into that infrastructure as a payment layer that is native to the purchasing experience rather than a generic card that happens to offer Amazon rewards.

The announcement arrives at a moment when Amazon's relationship with business customers has been the subject of significant attention. Amazon's payment change for advertising - shifting ad costs to auto-deduct from seller proceeds - generated substantial seller community discussion in early April 2026, and a subsequent deferral to August 1, 2026, followed pushback from affected accounts. Those changes affected the advertiser billing side of Amazon's relationship with sellers. The credit card launch operates on the buyer side - specifically, businesses purchasing goods and services on Amazon rather than advertising through it.

Amazon has also been expanding its Business Prime membership value, adding third-party software benefits including QuickBooks, CrowdStrike, and Gusto to the membership in late 2025, and positioning the overall Business Prime ecosystem as operational infrastructure for small and medium businesses rather than a simple procurement service.

What the card transition means for existing holders

Existing Amazon Business American Express cardholders face no immediate disruption. They can continue using their current cards and accumulating rewards without interruption until August 14, 2026. On that date, a replacement card arrives. Previously accumulated rewards carry over to the new cards. The transition is automatic - cardholders do not need to apply for a new card if they already hold the American Express version.

The split between Prime and non-Prime tiers persists in the new structure. The 5% rate on Amazon-family purchases requires a Prime membership; without it, the card earns 3%. Both tiers now add the 2% adaptive category rewards on non-Amazon spending, which was not a feature of the prior card in the same way.

New applicants can apply immediately at Amazon.com/businesscard-apply. The full rewards and benefits structure, including frequently asked questions about the card programs and a detailed transition timeline for existing cardholders, is published on Amazon's website.

Why this matters for the marketing and advertising community

The card launch is not an advertising product in the direct sense. But it sits within a broader Amazon push to deepen financial relationships with business customers - a population that includes small and medium-sized businesses that are also, in many cases, Amazon advertisers. Amazon's full-year 2025 advertising revenue reached $68.6 billion, with the advertising segment operating as one of the fastest-growing revenue lines in the company.

Businesses that use the new cards for Amazon Business purchases and AWS spending will accumulate rewards on the same platforms where they also run advertising. The spend management tools embedded in the card - itemized transaction reports, virtual card controls, approval workflows - could plausibly reduce friction in how smaller businesses track advertising expenditure alongside procurement spending, particularly for companies that manage both through a single Amazon Business account.

Amazon's advertising infrastructure overhaul in late 2025, which unified the DSP and Ads Console into a single Campaign Manager, followed a similar logic: reduce the number of interfaces and payment contexts a business must manage, and lower the operational cost of staying inside the Amazon ecosystem. The card launch extends that consolidation further into financial services, with U.S. Bank's product capabilities and Mastercard's network providing the infrastructure that Amazon could not build natively.

The Easy Savings rebate program through Mastercard, covering more than 50,000 locations including gas, dining, and travel, adds value that accumulates outside Amazon entirely - a deliberate design choice that makes the card competitive against general business credit cards rather than positioning it solely as an Amazon loyalty instrument.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Amazon, in partnership with U.S. Bank as card issuer and Mastercard as the payment network, launched two new business credit cards. Existing Amazon Business American Express cardholders and new applicants are both affected. Amazon Business serves more than eight million organizations globally across 11 countries.

What: The Prime Business Card and Amazon Business Card replace the previous Amazon Business American Express Card. The new cards offer 5% back on Amazon-family purchases (Prime members) or 3% (non-Prime), 2% adaptive rewards in the top three spending categories outside Amazon per billing cycle, 0% APR installments for up to 12 months on eligible Amazon purchases, spend management tools including virtual cards and approval workflows, acceptance at over 100 million locations worldwide, AI-powered fraud monitoring, and no annual fee or foreign transaction fees.

When: The launch was announced on May 13, 2026. New applicants can apply immediately. Existing American Express cardholders transition on August 14, 2026, when replacement cards arrive and accumulated rewards carry over.

Where: The cards are available to businesses in the United States. Application is available at Amazon.com/businesscard-apply. Amazon Business operates in 11 countries, but the new card products are U.S.-specific at launch.

Why: Amazon Business customers had requested more rewards outside Amazon, greater flexibility in payment timing, and better control over team spending, according to Amazon. The launch also positions Amazon Business's payment layer as integrated financial infrastructure for small and medium businesses, extending the same bundling logic applied across Business Prime membership benefits and procurement tools. The shift from American Express to U.S. Bank and Mastercard rewrites the partner economics of the product while maintaining reward rate parity on Amazon-family purchases and adding new features that the prior card did not include.

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