Reader Tip: Turn Off Amazon Shop With Points

When checking out, it would always "default" to the AMEX (membership rewards), always trying to get me to pay with points, so I just removed that card totally. Problem solved.

I just redeemed around 60,000 Amex points for a SQ F Suite on the A380 from SYD to HKG via SIN with 2 segments in a380 suites class. You can do that or a $400 Amazon voucher? Which one seems more fun.

Thanks for the great update!
Keep them Coming!!

Thanks for the tip! Just deleted one card that was showing up in the list.

A couple months ago there was a coupon code for $10 off Amazon if you used at least 1 Ultimate Rewards point. So I redeemed 1 Ultimate Rewards point.

Hi! I'm the original poster and good news, MY POINTS ARE BACK IN MY AMEX ACCOUNT!

It only took two weeks, hours on the phone with both Amex and Amazon, and lots of frustration.

Now that they're back, I immediately went into my Amazon account and disabled the points option... FOREVER!

Great suggestion! Thanks @bludevil for sharing your (painful) story for everyone's benefit.

Shop with points is not enabled by default in your Amazon account. Mine is giving me the option to "enroll" which I just did not click on the button.

@J You're welcome. I figured I learn enough from this blog, I'd share if I could. 🙂

There are many things you can get stuck on in Amazon and they're usually not intuitive or easy to find. Thanks for pointing this one out!

@bluedevil - glad you got your points back

Interesting. I shop on Amazon A LOT and it has never tried to get me to pay with points. Maybe it's because I always pay with Amazon gift cards. I buy Amazon GCs in bulk from OfficeDepot using my Chase Ink card which gets me 5 UR points so it's like getting 5 points per dollar spent at amazon.

I just looked at this but noticed that you can enroll the card again with one click, you don't even need to put in a password for your bank account so the possibility for fraud is still there.

@Brad B, I think the possibility of fraud is always there if someone gets into your account, this step just avoids compounding the problem. Most thieves aren't going to particularly choose to pay with points for their fraudulent purchases and a credit card charge can be easily reversed. However when the pay by points option is the default because you enrolled a while back it's harder to get the points back.

I paid for a taxi in NY with a AMEX MR card a year ago and it automatically used points as the default payment. I called AMEX to complain and they gave me the points back right away, comping the taxi ride. It was annoying, but very little hassle once I got on the phone with them.

Thank you for this post. I recently had someone hack my amazon account and order a game gc. Amazon caught it, alerted me and asked if it was my order. I replied immediately that it was not. I monitored my cc accounts for a while to be sure I wasn't charged, but it never occurred to me to check my points! I'll check those today to be sure. Again, thanks for the tip. (I'll also go online and disable this option.)

Citi TYP points seem to now be auto enrolled at amazon to "make it easier to use your TYP" and opt-out is now the default. Make sure to do that if you have a TYP enrolled at Amazon!

Does AMEX email you if the points are used, or are we expected to monitor them ourselves?

AMEX and Amazon just auto enrolled me to Shop with Points. Guess I should be thankful that Amazon sent an email "celebrating" my new found "wealth" and encouraging me to spend AMEX points at Amazon. Amazon knew exactly how many points were in my account.

Disabled Pay with Points on Amazon, removed by AMEX card as a payment option, called AMEX to complain, and AMEX dis-enrolled me from everywhere else they've doing it (McD, Chili's, taxis, and another half dozen companies. Since points are a currency, I'm annoyed that they are deploying this as an opt out feature. How is this any different than a debit card telling a merchant exactly how much is in my bank account?

This happened to me on February 1. I have not had any luck getting points reinstated with Amazon. After several attempts at contacting them, Amazon are now telling me the order is cancelled, but they do not return rewards points for purchases made on Amazon that are non-refundable services (like Kindle subscriptions). So I've literally had someone hack my amazon account, use amex rewards points to gift themselves a 12-month kindle subscribtion, and lost 17000 points from my Amex account. No one cares about helping me on either side.

I've since disabled Pay with Points from my account, but that's hardly the point.

Nobody will care from Amazon, but I finally find someone who cared with Amex, but it took a few tries and and a talk with a supervisor. Trying to get them back from Amazon is pointless.

Keep trying with Amex. I eventually got mine back. Good luck!

We are experiencing this issue right now, almost $1,000 worth of points have been fraudulently used from our MC account. Just getting into this situation so I’m hoping we will be able to get it resolved.

Warning if you upload your credit card to earn more mileage points. Amazon automatically sets by default to use your points. You'd think that you would need to select this option at check out. Not true. Before you start purchasing be aware that you first have to disable shop with points in "manage your credit card". I didn't discover this until purchases had deducted 4,555 points from my Capital One Signature Card.

I have only one credit card listed and approved for use on Amazon. It is my Amazon Prime Visa card. I earn 1 point for each $ spent. Until this month, August 2025, I had an option to purchase with points or a charge to my credit card paid monthly in dollars. I accumulated (bank) points until I wanted to use them. I was told by customer service three times they would waive the rule and they did. Today, no more waiver and that I must now first use any "banked" points first (I had about 750) for any purchase. I canceled a $700 order. I advised management that the policy was stupid by stupid people.

Thank you for that. We use to be able to select points or card charge at checkout. I will try the "Shop with points" election you explained.