Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.

Is Amazon's offer of a $50 gift card a scam?
Every financial services company (and cellphone provider, cable and broadband provider, private energy supplier, and so on and so forth - it's turtles all the way down in a market economy) spends "something" to acquire a new customer.  Paying attractive college students minimum wage to hand out brochures and branded fidget toys costs money.  A 1 million piece postal mailing for a 1% response rate costs money.  A TV ad or billboard costs money.  A signup enticement of cash or airplane miles costs money.   The question is, what does an organization spend per new customer?  The amount a company wants to spend has to do with their medium term outlook and overall margins, so it will vary with the business cycle, but a rule of thumb is $100-200 spent for each customer who signs up.  The advantage to this particular offer is that it may involve some payments to Amazon, but it includes less labor or cost-per-wasted-contact than alternatives.  So there's more in the budget to entice the prospect.   Recall, it's a one-time cost, and you gain a relationship where you get 2% of credit processing turnover for the duration of the account; a chance at 19.99% APR financing or other fees; and an opportunity to upsell a mortgage or life insurance or IRA accounts, etc to a known customer.