Amazon: FREE Shipping Threshold Now $49

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Amazon LogoHeads up Amazon Shoppers! It appears that the minimum FREE shipping threshold, for NON-Prime members, has been raised from $35 to $49. 🙁 There hasn’t been an official statement released (that I am aware of), but it’s very obvious when you head to checkout.

Orders including $25 or more of eligible books qualify for FREE Shipping. All orders of $49 or more of eligible items across any product category also qualify for FREE Shipping. With free shipping, your order will be delivered 5-8 business days after all of your items are available to ship, including pre-order items.

Note that Amazon Prime members will continue to receive free 2-day shipping with no minimum purchase.


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Are YOU an Amazon Prime Member? If not, now is a great time to sign up for an Amazon Prime membership! For just $99 per year, Amazon Prime members get to take advantage of the following offers…


1. Unlimited FREE two-day shipping (no minimum order size) – my favorite benefit! 😀 And if you are not in a rush for your item(s), you can opt for no-rush shipping and score a free $1 credit to use for eBooks, digital music, or videos.

2. Amazon Family – If you’re a Prime member with young children, sign up for Amazon Family to snag special offers including 20% off diapers subscriptions and freebies like free Gerber formula (no longer available).

3. Unlimited instant streaming of over 40,000 movies and TV shows AND unlimited, ad-free streaming of over a million songs

4. Access to exclusive savings (like this previously available deal on a rice cooker) AND exclusive offers (like these free magazine subscription offers previously available)

5. Unlimited Photo Storage w/ Amazon Cloud Drive

6. 30-minute early access to select Amazon Lightning Deals

7. Free Kindle Book(s) every month

Not ready to commit to an annual membership yet? Sign up here for a FREE 30-day Amazon Prime membership. Looking for a gift idea for the person who has everything? Give the gift of an Amazon Prime membership.

Are you a college student? Sign up NOW to get a FREE 6-Month Amazon Prime membership!

(Thanks, Savings Done Simply and Freebie Shark!)

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Comments 150

  1. Jamie

    I’ve noticed lately that most times it’s more like 3 day shipping for prime members. Best I can tell they still say 2 day but the cutoff is so early it’s really 3 day. 1 day shipping upgrade also costs $5.99-$8.99 instead of $1.99 or $2.99 like it used to be.

    • Renee

      I agree sometimes they 2 day shipping is 3 or even 4, depending on the item. Why is this ?

      • Rebecca

        That may depend on what location it’s coming from in relation to you, etc. Like most places, they have cut-off times every day. One thing though, that I found out after chatting with them this past Christmas season…if it’s sold by Amazon, then generally(except for items specially noted) the processing time is included in the shipping estimate, so the 2-day shipping will usually be correct. However, if it’s not sold by Amazon but is still offered with prime shipping, that changes things. That seller can more or less take as long as they need to process, then your 2-day shipping would apply once shipped. So order directly from Amazon when possible, get it quicker & easier returns as well. Although Amazon will back up every purchase, if it’s not directly from them, not quite as easy. Also you can’t exchange something from another seller, just straight refund.

        • Jamie

          Even on items sold by Amazon I’ve been experiencing the 3-4 day shipping. I’ve been using Amazon for quite some time and this is completely new! I do live in a very rural area so that’s probably to blame but before it was always 2 days on the dot.

          • Jodi

            I think it’s actually the postal service that is causing packages to take longer. I’ve noticed that even first class letters now usually take 3 days, sometimes 4!

    • amanda

      I agree, I bought something on prime on Saturday, and it won’t be here until Thursday. If I wanted to upgrad the shipping, I could’ve paid $5.99 and got it Wednesday, a whopping day earlier.

  2. Shannon

    Amazon prime is great! Especially now that I figured out how to watch Amazon instant video through the game consoles so I didn’t have to purchase anything extra. My kids love all the shows on there since we cut the cable!

  3. kcmiami88

    I think this is crazy… $25-$35 is standard for minimum shipping in my experience and i think thats high… I got my prime membership free because of being a student otherwise i would probably never shop on it… They have great prices sometimes but i can usually dind the same price elsewhere or just price match their prices at target, bestbuy, etc… Looks like i will stick with products that offer free shipping lol

  4. Amy

    I do the majority of my Christmas shopping on Amazon, so the Prime has always been worth it for me. Having ordered hundreds of items through the years, I have only had one issue with an item not arriving. I recall telling my husband how amazing it is that we have had so few issues considering how much we order. They really have been consistent and I haven’t noticed any changes in it lately.

  5. mem

    I am a prime member but anything I ship to my mom in a remote location of WV automatically changes to 5-7 day shipping.

  6. LaDonna

    Amazon is such a great deal – I cannot believe how many are complaining! Prime is worth it for the TV/movie streaming alone – it’s about the same price as Netflix! Add on top of that you get free two-day shipping, great prices and great customer service! In my area we receive Sunday delivery and in many areas you can get same day delivery!!! People, please be reasonable!!! But, I’m sure Amazon is thinking if you are silly enough to walk away, so be it.

  7. Adrian

    For about 2 months I have been looking for things to buy to organize my junk. I finally decided on which things to get($32 and change total) and was checking on how much more I needed to qualify for free shipping and it said $16 and change. I had to investigate and then came here for the bad news 🙁 Anyone with prime willing to add me to their account just so I can place my order and I will send you a couple bucks for your trouble?

  8. Moni B.

    I live in Hawaii & when it comes to shipping, it’s the biggest of headaches. Some companies don’t ship AT ALL to Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, & U.S. territories. And if they do it’s ridiculously expensive! So I don’t mind if I have to wait a little longer for my packages, because in the end it’s worth it for the great prices & free shipping! AND the no sales tax. AND the covenience of driving home & my packages are there, containing shopping that I didn’t have to spend gasoline & time looking for! 🙂

  9. J

    Totally understandable. It’s unfortunate, but understandable. I live in a major metro area and it’s expensive everywhere. So I get it.

    I am a Prime member though and it’s great for my family. I try to plan purchases earlier than needed so I can opt for slower shipping thereby taking advantage of whatever No Rush Shipping credits I can get. We also stream music, movies, and store photos on the Cloud. Customer Service has also always been fantastic–I love the Chat option cause it’s convenient when babies are napping!

    I didn’t know that delayed shipping can extend prime membership for a month. That’s pretty cool and I’ll have to keep that in mind now! I ordered mittens during that huge snowstorm on the east coast and I think I still got my items on time! But I’m about to double check now! 😊

  10. Moni B.

    Oh & btw I’ve even told Amazon to consolidate my packages (I too order a lot of merchandise) to as few shipments as possible. Which inherently means that I may have to wait a little longer for my orders! But that’s ok with me if it will save Amazon $$ so that they don’t raise our Prime membership fee.

  11. Jo Dra

    I hardly order from Amazon anymore because they upped the shipping from 25 to 35 and started charging sales tax in my state. Now 49 will probably stop me from ordering all together. I use Ebay and half.com.

  12. carrieshook

    The shipping hike is a little extreme but I got Amazon Prime two years ago during a Christmas promotion. I decided to keep it and have never looked back. I’m a little sad that the price of prime keeps going up, but honestly it’s well worth it. You get access to Prime’s music library that I use a ton, access to Prime movies and TV, and the free shipping. Prime averages $9/month compared to Spotify premium (9.99/month) Netflix (7.99/month) and Shoprunner (6.50/month) it’s a pretty fair price. While it’s not always exactly two days, it’s still faster then other places I order from. What stands out to me most though, is Amazon’s customer service. This is what makes all the difference for me.

    I bought a Halloween costume from Walmart.com and not only did it not arrive in time for Halloween, they refused to refund my money when it was their fault I didn’t receive it in time. It was a big hassle and I ended up going around in circles for weeks. It made me really appreciate Amazon. I can contact them easily and they really make customer service a priority. When Collin posted a $10 price drop for an item I had just bought (it hadn’t even shipped yet) I simply contacted Amazon and they adjusted the price instantly. No fuss, no hassle. Making the customer a priority seems to have all but disappeared. I’m glad to support a company that supports its customers like Amazon does.

    I promise I don’t work for Amazon, and I’m not making any money from them lol I just really do love them as a customer.

  13. sueh

    I think that 20% increase is too much. I read that Amazon doing this to herd customers into Prime. If, Amazon puts the cost of Prime up at 20% a pop, they will really madden their customers. Considering, Target, Best Buy, and almost all other companies have much lower shipping minimums, I think this was corporate GREED on their part. I guess time will tell if it hurts their BOTTOM LINE. This may help ebay and other online merchants.

  14. c

    Amazon has always offered me great customer service, but this price hike is too much for me. I am not a prime member and the only reasons I usually shop at Amazon is because of all the gift cards I get from survey sites. I never spend that much money on one order. But I guess that’s the whole point, they aren’t trying to cater to customers like me, they want this to be an exclusive member’s only club and I get that. What I don’t understand is when sometimes I order, they seem to deliberately put my order on hold for 8 days and then they finally ship using UPS 2-day shipping and I get it on the tenth day; very weird. Paying for prime would be a waste of money for me and even getting to the $35 threshold was difficult; I always had to add random items I hadn’t plan on purchasing just to meet the threshold. Only thing that is left is the subscribe & save, add-on items, and some random items from Chinese sellers that offer free shipping. If they get rid of these remaining services, then it will be a complete goodbye to Amazon for me; it’s a partial goodbye for now.

  15. Jodi

    Amazon now lets you add an entire extra HOUSEHOLD to your own Prime account! My sister will be adding me to her Prime account next month, when my own Prime expires. She signed up last month for just $79. Previously, she was signing into my account with my password to use Prime.

    So that’s two households using all of Prime’s benefits, movies, etc, etc for the price of one.

    • renay

      How can you do this? I used to share prime with other relatives not living in my household and now it says only in your household? If you have any tips, please share:)

  16. Carrie

    Prime shipping is going to be next most likely. How much is it now, $99? I had to pay tax too on top of that. :/

  17. Pat

    I’ve been a prime member forever. It’s totally worth it to me and I don’t find the $49 unreasonable at all! It’s prety standard for online shopping sites. It’s a huge benefit to me to be able to pay one price for free shipping all year – I’ve saved a ton at Amazon, not to mention the convenience factor.

  18. mtmkjr

    Having made my say about the increase, I’ll mention that I didn’t renew my prime membership this year because I have college kids who have free accounts, and I use theirs instead, and will continue to do so until they graduate.

    BUT. today I wanted to take advantage of a coupon, so I placed an order with my old non-prime account, and the total came to $48.xx I thought i’d have to go find a cheap filler, but surprisingly, I got the free shipping.

    So… what’s the deal – is the $49 threshold a fuzzy line?

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