6 Reasons Why You Need Amazon Prime & How to Get it for Free
I asked in the SWS Holiday Survey how often and where you shop online. Nearly 95% of you said you shop at Amazon and more than 60% of you said you shop online a couple times a month or more.
So it sounds to me like you are shopping from Amazon pretty often and if you don’t have Amazon Prime, you are missing out! Amazon Prime is a great way to get all the best of what Amazon has to offer at an easy to swallow price of $99 per year. We signed up about 5 years ago and have never looked back.
Here are the 6 Reasons Why You Need Amazon Prime:
1. Free Two-Day Shipping – It sounds like most of you already shop Amazon. And if you don’t, you should. The savings are huge and you can find almost anything at the drop of a dime. However, one reason some folks choose not to is because of the shipping costs. Amazon Prime takes that out of the equation with free two day shipping. There is no minimum on this feature, so it alone in my opinion is worth the price of membership here. Buy a $10 DVD here and a $15 birthday present there. A handful of items over the course of a year and you have justified the annual fee.
2. One-Day Shipping Upgrade – Let’s face it. Sometimes you need an item and you need it fast. Like, the next day fast. With Amazon Prime, this is simple and cost effective. Just upgrade your free two-day shipping to one-day shipping for $3.99. The one-day shipping upgrade without Prime is $9.95 or more depending on the item. I think $3.99 is really reasonable to have the item on my doorstep the very next day. I’m also embarrassed to say, I’ve needed this feature more times than I care to admit.
3. Kindle Owner’s Lending Library – Love to read and own a Kindle? If so, you have the option as an Amazon Prime member to borrow books from the lending library. This means that you will save a ton of money on books and entertainment as well. New York Times Bestsellers and many other quality options are available. You can borrow one book from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library each calendar month. You do need an actual Kindle to take advantage of this perk. Some books I borrowed and loved were The Hangman’s Daughter series and the Hunger Games series.
4. Amazon Instant Video – Here is where the savings start to truly multiply. Do you have a Netflix account or buy DVDs all the time? If so, you will save a ton here as well. Amazon Instant Video has over 41,000 television shows and movies to choose from at any time for free. This is yet another perk of having this wonderful program. We cancelled our Netflix subscription at $7.99 per month ($95 annual) in order to pay for our Prime account. Stream videos on Kindle Fire HD, as well as iPad, PS3, Xbox, Wii, Wii U, Roku, on hundreds of TVs, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, and on the Web. Plus, all of your videos are stored in Your Video Library, so you can access them anywhere you go. We watched favorite TV show series like Downton Abbey and Sons of Anarchy. They recently stuck up a deal with HBO too. So you can stream many of your favorite HBO series for free!
5. Amazon Mom – If you are parents of small children, Amazon Mom will be a HUGE source of savings. Wet wipes, diapers and other items get special discounts under this program. You can save 20% off diaper, wipes and other baby items as an Amazon Mom member. They also have Amazon Mom sales with 20% off popular baby gear and accessories. I have saved hundreds being part of the Amazon Mom program. Amazon Mom is included with your Amazon Prime membership making it another reason why the program is worth the money.
6. Share with Your Family – You may share the free two-day shipping portion of your Prime membership with up to four family members. I shared mine with my mom and my mother-in-law. They get free two-day shipping without paying for a Prime Membership because I simply added them to my account. They don’t get all the other benefits I mentioned above but for someone who doesn’t shop often, this is a great little bonus to be able to offer someone.
Now that I sold you on Amazon Prime, I’m here to tell you how to get it for FREE! And who doesn’t love free!? There are FOUR ways you can get a FREE Amazon Prime subscription:
1. Amazon Student – Amazon Student is a free membership program created especially for college students. First time Amazon Student signups receive a FREE six month trial of Amazon Prime. After the initial 6 months, students get an annual subscription discount of 50% making the annual fee just $39. Students get most of the benefits listed above. You don’t get the Prime Instant Videos though. You can cancel at any time during the 6-month trial with no further obligation.
2. Amazon Mom – Amazon Mom is open to anyone, whether you’re a mom, dad, grandparent, or caretaker. New members are eligible for a FREE 3-month trial of Amazon Prime. After the initial 3 months, the price to continue is the regular $99 Prime Annual Fee. You can cancel at any time during the 3-month trial with no further obligation.
3. Amazon Prime Trial – First time Prime subscribers can get a FREE 30-day trial. This gives you plenty of time to test out the videos, movies, books and shipping options. Once you dive in and see all it has to offer, the chances are good that you will be thrilled and stay on board. If not, you can cancel at any time during the 30-day trial with no further obligation.
4. Get a Gift Subscription – While this isn’t completely free, it is free for you and I thought worth mentioning. You can request a Prime Gift Subscription. I know as an adult I have a hard time coming up with gift ideas for myself for Christmas and birthdays. A gift subscription of Prime would be a great gift request because you could use the benefits all year.
I encourage you to give Amazon Prime a second look and take advantage of all the great features it offers. I really think this is an excellent bang for your buck!
And since you are headed over to Amazon anyway, be sure you check out all the awesome Amazon Deals I’ve posted lately. You’ll find some great gift ideas for everyone on your list!
I thought it would be worth it too, and I signed up for it. I was unable to borrow books from the lending library because I did not physically have a kindle. I use the kindle app on my ipad and that was not allowed. Also, I have TIVO and while it looks like you can rent videos, you can’t. Their system isn’t compatible with TIVO. I was so disappointed with the inability to use these services, I requested my money back. They did refund it to me though.
Thanks Jackie! I just updated the post to reflect that.
How did u watch the breaking bad series without still having to rent it? I am a prime member and don’t see that it’s one of the shows u can watch for free.
Sorry! My husband says it’s Sons of Anarchy he watched. Not Breaking Bad. 🙂 I can’t keep all his shows straight.
I stream TV for free with internet IdMb TV or one free TV site Has Breaking Bad Series on it its free . Research it all you need is internet & download the app on your TV. Free & easy
We have amazon student, and it does not let you watch the instant video unless you upgrade to the $39 a year. Still better than full price. You get all the other benefits, but not the videos. Great Deal! You need a student email address to register.
Liz 🙂
I’ve been a Prime Member for over five yrs, as well. I do ALL of my holiday shopping and even my everything else shopping the rest of the yr. My UPS man is at my door at least 3 times a week. We live in a small town far away from any Target or Dillards. So, it’s just easier to get it online with Amazon.
When it was getting super close to Christmas a few weeks ago, I’d order some last minute things here and there. … and everything came earlier than expected! They’ve never disappointed me. (I even give sweet treats to my UPS man.)
I’m with you …..my UPS man is my best friend, next to Amazon! If you shop like we do your Prime membership fee will be paid for with what you save in gas, time and shipping charges from other online retailers in one month or less!
And for those of you that are complaining because you can’t use parts of the service because you don’t have a Kindle…..get one! You’ll never look back!
I signed up for the Amazon Student and found out AFTER I signed up that the borrowing feature is only if you have a Kindle. I don’t. I also can’t watch the instant videos unless I upgrade for $39 a year. The advertising is rather misleading.
LOVE ME SOME AMAZON PRIME!
I’ve been using the prime membership for years now, and I’m finding out that it’s just not worth it. With the membership I tend to spend more on crap that I don’t need to begin with and my book addiction is more out of control than ever. With their new price hike we are definitely not renewing…it’s ok to wait for normal shipping. You save money in the end! Period!
Too bad this post is nothing more than a commercial for Amazon. While I understand that this is the way blogs generate revenue, the information here is just too misleading.
I’ve also had Amazon Prime for years and love it! But I wanted to know if you were aware of smile.amazon.com? It’s the same Amazon and you can use all your Prime perks, but when you purchase items through smile.amazon, Amazon donates 0.5% of your purchase to a charity of your choice. It may not be a large percentage, but it certainly can add up!
And CC, it definitely depends on the person. You and others I know find it not to be worth it, but I’ve added up our savings and it is definitely worth it for us I’m careful about what we purchase and I rarely buy things that we weren’t going to get anyway. We stream video pretty much every day. To call this out as misleading is unfair.
Amazon Prime is awesome! I couldn’t live without it. I love all of the perks if offers (that you mentioned). Even if you don’t have it though, Amazon is the best company for customer service I’ve ever dealt with. They always want you to be happy. I do all of my Christmas shopping through this site.
Even with the Amazon prime, you still have to pay for the new movies. There is significantly small collection of movies in the Amazon still today Sep 30,2015. There is no comparison with the movies in the Netflix. The Netflix interface via the app on TV, ps4, and roku is far superior to Amazon. For books, you need to buy kindle. Two day shipping is not available for all items. By the way, not everything is cheap in Amazon. One needs to shop at local stores, Amazon, ebay and online before making the final decision as where to purchase from.
Really, I am not sure what Amazon benefit we are talking about here?
How can you share your account with 4 family members? Where do you add them?
I’ve been able to get the loaner books on my iPad kindle app, I just have to add them from my computer and they show up on the iPad kindle app,.
Your Account -> Manage Prime Membership
Scroll down on the page and you’ll seen “Share Your Prime Benefits”
Expand that menu and you should see instructions.
It’s a shame Amazon don’t do a delivery prime for just ordering without all the rest of the prime stuff as alot of people can’t afford it or don’t use the other services like Movie’s n Book’s etc. Maybe you could bring something in for people that’s just looking fast delivery Amazon?
I have Amazon Prime and pretty much anything that I order is not covered by Amazon Prime. It makes me wonder if Amazon charges a shipping charge plus the shipping charge that the seller charges and if you have Amazon Prime then Amazon drops their charge but you still have to pay the sellers shipping charge? I have had Amazon Prime for three months now and cannot justify paying for it again.
Amazon Prime gives free shipping on items that are fulfilled by Amazon. Shipping may charges apply if you are purchasing items fulfilled by 3rd party sellers. Amazon allows 3rd party sellers in order to boost volume and variety. When listing items 3rd party sellers two options. #1) Ship their items directly to Amazon and Amazon will fulfill and ship orders once sold. Those items do qualify for Prime. #2) Keep the items themselves to fulfill and ship once sold. Sellers can pass their shipping rates on to the customer.
If you are seeing shipping charges on the items you buy, this means you are purchasing items from 3rd party sellers that are not fulfilled by Amazon. I would imagine you are either 1) Purchasing more obscure items or 2) Purchasing very popular items that Amazon has difficulty keeping in stock. Your best bet would be to wait and see if Amazon gets the item back in stock and you can purchase through them. You can also take advantage of all the other Prime benefits available. That said, Prime isn’t for everyone. I think most people will easily get their money’s worth from their subscription but if you don’t think it’s a good value, then by all means, don’t renew!
What about movies I purchased on my AMAZON PRIME if I cancel my subscription.
I’ve had Amazon Prime for many years and it totally ROCKS!!!!
Don’t forget to use Smile.Amazon.com as the web address instead of just Amazon.com. It gives you the option of automatically donate part of some of your purchase amounts to a charity.
I would love to get Amazon prime. My only problem with it is needing to pay the $99 at one time. I just can’t do that. Oh and they don’t use PayPal which is how I pay for online purchases.
They are in talks to add Paypal as a payment option. You are definitely not the only one pulling for that. Hopefully they can reach an agreement soon and start accepting Paypal.
Love, love, love my Amazon Prime. I started as a free student member several years ago, then paid the full price, and now as a grad student, I get the discounted rate again. When they first upped their rate to $99, I considered cancelling it, but when I realized that it’s the equivalent of $8.25/month – that’s only 0.25 more than my Netflix bill – and I get free shipping. So worth it to me. Like you said, though – it’s not for everybody. 🙂
I did not see Prime Wish list mentioned. I use it for my niece and nephews. Their mother has Prime also and I have them pick out 3 to 4 things each and then I choose one or two so they do not know which ones they are receiving and I am getting something that they really want. I let my niece know do we do not duplicate and it is shipped straight to them. They also wrap for a nominal fee. I just fwd the delivery dates to her . Works great for me.
“Paying $99 a year for Prime will be difficult. Are there any lower rates for 80 yr old seniors.? Remember Social Security never seems to go up any more.
Around Steiner asked a question about seniors, what was your reply? Is there a discount for seniors?
As far as I’m aware there is no discount for Seniors.
I want to try Amazon prime for tv. How do I start and how do I use it on my tvs-like what equipment besides my tvs do I need? I’m new to all of this.
If you have a smart TV then it’s built into the TV. Otherwise you’ll need a device like a Roku box, Chrome or Fire TV stick or a AppleTV set.
Is there a discount on Amazon prime for people on disability?
Unfortunately not!
We don’t have a smart tv and use Chrome for netflix using my iPhone.
Will Amazon prime movies work with Chrome from and iPhone app?