Amazon Prime Members: Annual Rate Increasing to $99
Heads-up for all you Amazon Prime members/Amazon Student Members or those of you considering a membership! Amazon.com has just announced that existing Prime members will now pay $99 per year on their annual renewal date and Amazon Student members will pay $49. If you are an existing Prime Member, you will be receiving an email from Amazon sometime today with this announcement and the date that your membership is set to renew. If you are not interested in renewing at this increased rate, you will want to log into your Amazon Account and go to the Manage Prime Membership page.
For those of you who currently use Amazon Prime, will you be renewing at this increased rate?!
If you’re not familiar with Prime (or have been considering a membership), now is the time to sign-up as it appears the annual rate for new members is still $79/year (or you can opt sign up for a 30-day FREE trial of Amazon Prime)! With Amazon Prime, you’ll get FREE 2-day shipping on select items sold by Amazon with no minimum purchase necessary, and unlimited, instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with Prime Instant Videos on hundreds of compatible devices including computers, TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, and set-top boxes. Plus, you’ll have access to thousands of books to borrow for free, as frequently as once a month, with no due dates through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
Are you looking for even more ways to save on Amazon.com?! Check out the video below where I highlight all the different ways to save including Super Saver Shipping, Amazon Prime, Amazon Mom, Amazon Student, Amazon Coupons and more!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btysSJn0VDI&w=640&h=360]
* If you can’t see this video, go here to watch it.
(Thanks, Amie, Debra and Daily Cheapskate!)
I think its worth it. I get amazon student….I am in grad,school and when I need my books, I need my books!™
Sometimes they have come the very next day. This has saved me.a.lot of headache
I will definitely be cancelling :o(
I will still renew. I use Prime like crazy and you can’t beat it even at $99. I have something out for delivery at least 2-3 times a week. Sometimes something as cheap as $6-7. The shipping alone would be twice the cost. It’s still worth it!! Plus their customer service is top notch that I’m willing to pay a bit extra to keep my business with them!
I’ll second that, the customer service being very good!
I will third that! Amazon Prime, even at a whopping $1.67 more a month is a no-brainer, especially if you already have it and use it a lot. Come on folks! How many of you following the bargains have shelled out far more than that for something that sits on a shelf and that you have to throw out because you never used it? I recently threw out 5 boxes of cereals that I discovered were way past the expiration date and had actually turned rancid. Sure, I got them at a good price, but it was a total waste of money in the end. How many of you have cosmetics in your stash that you bought at bargain prices but never got to use, and then when you did found that the mascara was all dried out or that foundation was watery? I have!
How many of you get all excited when Coach, which sells insanely expensive handbags, has a sale reducing the $300 bag to $150? How many of you jump for the new online service deals offering items that are nice but really not cheap, such as the meal delivery service the other day or the workout clothing line? Heck, personally I drop more than $1.67 every time I walk into a dollar store. I always find something I “need”. My point is that probably most of us spend money here and there and don’t think twice about a few dollars here or there.
Re: shipping, other than during the busy Christmas season when I sometimes received my orders more than 3 or 4 days after ordering instead of 2, shipping has been wonderful! I have even received some orders in the afternoon of the morning I ordered them or by the next day.
I think Amazon Prime with all it offers is amazing, even with that huge, massive, colossal, gargantuan, unbelievably large monthly increase of $1.67!
Lol, you just reminded me of why I don’t need to be buying all the deals I see… I’ll probably stay with Amazon because I have little ones and it is so much easier than going out (and I love that the shipping is fast), but I might benefit of not having it so I don’t buy all these “deals” and then have the items sitting on a shelf or even still in a box in my house taking up space (true story). I think I will use it for a birthday party or as a gift, or because it is so useful… and then when it gets here we don’t end up going to a party for a kid of that gender/age, or I didn’t really need it like I thought I did originally… etc etc… 🙂
I completely agree! I mean how many people pounce on Groupon when they offer a $10 Starbucks card for $5?!? One cup of coffee at Starbucks would pay for 2 months worth of prime. I will be keeping it because I use the subscribe and save for toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, wipes etc. even with the increased cost I am still coming out WAY ahead vs buying in the store.
Remember you can share a membership!! We share an account that has at least 6-7 cards saved!! It’s so worth for free 2 day shipping. Split with family for great deals. It’ll pay for itself…especially at Christmas with all the shopping I do online!
Hi Laurin…can you tell me more about how you share?
Here’s an article about sharing:
https://lifehacker.com/5926298/share-your-amazon-prime-two-day-shipping-with-four-people
Hi herschy1, im not Laurin but i totally agree with her comment; my sis live in NY and i live in Florida, im the primary member but we both share the same account…i added my own credit card with my shipping address in Florida, then my sister added one of her debit/credit card using her address in NY… every time that any of us is buying something, we have to select which address and which card we want to use… its very simple, and yes totally worthy 🙂 hope that helps 🙂 🙂 ps: instead of splitting the annual fee, she does it one year, ill do it the next one.
We do that too! In case anyone is wondering, only the main user gets full benefits while the other users only get 2 day free shipping. (so for example, other users can’t use amazon’s streaming service or their lending library.) It’s still a great deal since I only use the free shipping anyway!
We do this too. My dad buys it for me for Christmas every year, I share the shipping with him and my Grandma and he uses my login so we can both use the streaming TV.
I share with a friend, but only get the free shipping part of it. That is well worth it for me. They get the streaming.
I don’t find this to be the case.We share with our son’s and we are able to get the streaming movies and t.v.
I share my account with my Mom. So we split the cost. It is totally worth it for us. Especially at Christmas time. We did most of our shopping this year on Amazon and could ship it anywhere for free. I love it when I have a cheap item and can ship it for free because before I had Prime, I was always trying to add something to make it $25.00 so I could get free shipping. So I feel that I am actually saving money by getting Prime and being able to purchase cheaper items and have them ship for “free” each time. Totally worth it in my opinion. 🙂
If you share a prime account with family and friends, are they able to see your purchases at any given time? I did not realize you could share. However, I would not want them to be able to see gifts I buy them in my account.
You can have it set up so they just get the shipping privileges, they don’t see what you buy and you don’t see what they buy. Here is the link that explains how sharing works https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200444180
Thanks so much!
I believe sharing the streaming is against their policy and you can get cancelled and banned.
I agree. Look at the terms. Be honest and life will be much happier 🙂
Can someone explain this to me? I have my own non prime acct now, with amazon credits saved. If my bro has prime can I hook my acct to his and keep the credits? I only want the free ship benefits lol already have cable and netflix.
It does not seem like Amazon enforces this, but the rule does say “invite a household member”. This would be only people living in your household. It is against Amazon policy to share between households.
Oh ok gotcha. Besides that though if I was to link my account to someone else’s would I still keep my credits and current account and such or have to make a new account?
You could just add new cards to your account that you have now! All you’d have to do is find family or friends willing to split it with you. No linking required just let them have your password!
You can share it with people living in your household, or other coworkers if it is a business accnt:
“Free or paid Amazon Prime members can share their shipping benefits with up to four additional family members living in the same household. If you purchase a Prime membership for a small business, you may invite up to four co-workers to shop with this corporate account.”
It seems like everything else is cheating, unless I am missing something?
Lolita, I agree with you, unless someone can prove us otherwise. Everything is promoting something that is incorrect.
Technically, people cheating the system could be part of the reason why the are upping the price. If more people are using the benefits without paying correctly, they have to charge everyone more to make up for it!
Yeah the rules are in the same household. My fiance and I live together and I’m the secondary. I’m surprised Amazon has not cracked down on the sharing more. And i’m disappointed that people who take other types of fraud seriously (ie coupon fraud) find no shame in doing something that clearly violates the written policy.
We’ll keep our membership despite the hike (ours just renewed in January).
One person pays for the membership then the others chip in. You share the password and all info that you buy which can be tricky at Christmas, but it’s not often that I check the orders on account unless I’m looking back and my orders and see the others. Only one person will receive the emails and notifications so that person should be willing to forward important information along. Thankful for my MIL and our prime account!!:)
I would have maintained my membership at the $99 rate but the 2 day shipping seems to be non-existent now. The past year, the guaranteed shipping time frame is not accurate and where I could once rely on the ‘estimated delivery date,’ that date is much later in many cases. I only use prime for the free shipping and 2-3 day shipping so I do not see the value for our family any longer 🙁
I agree. . .the 2 day shipping is definitely slipping. Especially around Christmas we had packages that were more like a week (when you factor in the weekend that they don’t count plus a day to process, plus the extra days it was taking to ship).
UPS had problems during Christmas time with deliveries arriving on time. It wasn’t Amazon not shipping on time. It was well documented in the press. I had one package that was late & it was UPS’s fault. Amazon stepped up to the plate & refunded my shipping cost (I paid extra for 1 day shipping) because it was one day late even though it wasn’t their fault. That is great customer service & why I will keep my prime even at $99. I think it is a good value considering how often I order from them & how often I use the apps, movies, etc.
May be your local UPS/or carrier? Between my husband and I we buy enough to have the UPS man at our house 2-3 times a week. Occasionally a package will take longer than 2 days. But I say 90% of the time my orders get here when it says it will.
Agreed.Last/this winter was/is brutal it was because of the really bad storms remember those.Delayed flights, ice storms.Amazon did step up to the plate and reimburse fees for a lot of people they really didn’t have to do that.
UPS is actually my preferred carrier and I agree they are the best. However, it seems that smartpost, USPS, or FedEx has been picking up many of my shipments and this is where I am seeing much more of a delay.
I have had the same issues whenever USPS gets involved, but Amazon’s amazing customer service gives you a free month of Prime every time a shipment does not arrive by the guaranteed date! You just have to jump online, do a quick chat with customer service and ask! I have gotten three additional months, extending my membership an entire quarter. Amazon is by far my favorite retailer on the planet!
I think sometimes it depends on where the merchandise is being shipped from because we live near a warehouse and received many things the very next day after ordering. In any case most places take more like 3-5 so amazon is always quicker for us.
That’s too bad that you’ve had issues. I have only ever had one thing late and it was due to a giant blizzard. We always get things in two days or sometimes one day. Have you contacted amazon about the issue? They are usually great with customer service and don’t want to lose customers!
I will be keeping it. We use it to watch a lot of movies. It will work out to $8.25/month. That is still a good price for us.
Nope nope and nope. Lol. I’ll just get a sams club membership when that deal comes up again and buy what I would have got on auto ship from amazon from them and only buy what ships free on amazon or wait till my cart is full enough to get free shipping. Already pay for netflix so prime isn’t that appealing to me.
I will probably be canceling too, but my doesn’t expire till December.
It’s only 1.66 more a month. I think I can afford that 🙂
The $1.66 per month increase isn’t that bad. That makes the increase not seem so bad when you look at it that way.
Good point! It seems like a lot more but put that way it’s not bad. I have the student so I’ll continue to renew mine. Well worth it when I can have so many things shipped to my house and it’s less I have to buy at the store. It’s nice to not have to use coupons all the time and still get great deals!
We will still be keeping it. Along with Netflix, even at 99 dollars a year, it is cheaper than satellite!
I’ll be keeping it. It’s still a great deal for my family since I use the streaming all the time. For only $.25 more than Netflix we get all the shipping and amazon mom benefits, so it’s more than worth it still IMO.
I will be canceling because I pay for cable as well. I wish they offered tv shows AND internet access, because then I would cancel my internet and cable provider. But I think at the higher price, I cannot rationalize having both cable and amazon prime, which I mostly use to watch tv on.
$20 increase is still worth keeping the membership. I do my online shopping primarily through Amazon Prime. I’m definitely saving on shipping charges.
I noticed the amazon free shipping on orders of $25 above, went up to $35
If you you are a prime member, there is no minimum.
I’m keeping amazon prime. I have two college students that use it for books and streaming. I use my prime membership frequently thanks to hip2save deals. Hip2save saves me so much money, I don’t mind the extra $20 for prime. It’s definitely worth it.
Im def out…unless i find a few family/friends to share membership..
$20 is a huge increase. I am extremely annoyed about. It eats into any savings that I would have had. I already called to complain and let them know they will be losing my business.
Wow, I guess I got lucky as my membership is set to renew on 3/26/14. My email stated that I would still be paying $79 for this renewal but it will increase to $99 on my renewal in 2015. I do think its been well worth it. However, I heard this morning amazon.com is being sued b/c of inflated prices on some items, makes the prime membership worthless when you are paying more for the product. I have noticed this on a few smaller items and was surprised to see the lawsuit this morning. A good reminder to price check items on the web even with the “free 2 day shippng”.
Me too, mine set to renew in a couple of weeks. so 2014 will still be $79 and 2015 will be $99. i can totally live with that!!
I agree! I went on amazon to purchase some baby bottles that would have been about $24 for a set. Amazon had them posted for almost $2000! I don’t know how that amount can even be possible.
That was probably a third party seller. I doubt Amazon was selling them for $2000.
Was it from a secondary seller or from Amazon itself? Some secondary sellers offer items at inflated prices. That happens a lot with sold out toys at Christmas time.
I am seeing those inflated ‘regular’ prices too and their prices are not what they used to be. I do not have prime and won’t be purchasing it. I am ordering from them much less now that there is a $35 minimum for free shipping.
I got lucky too. My membership renews on march 31 for $79. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about it for another year. I’m pretty sure I’ll renew at $99. I’ve starting using subscribe and save for more than just diapers and I save a lot.
The email I just received from Amazon states: ‘Prime membership will be increasing in 2015. Your 2014 annual renewal will remain at the original price of $79. On March 14, 2015, your membership will renew at $99/year.’ Good Right!!!
According to my membership page the price increase will not start until 2015.
Mine is set to renew April 19, 2014 at $99, so they must be starting April 1
We are not cancelling. I use it all the time for baby items, household items, Christmas presents, and other things. I love that I don’t have to leave the house to shop. $20 is not that much of an increase.
Mine just expired and I was considering renewing since I love the free shipping. The streaming service is not an incentive for me. They add newer release movies at a snail’s pace. However, I’ve already missed out on good deals because I didn’t want to pay shipping. Not sure if I will renew now.
Yes, we save more than we spend on the membership by far. If the $20 increase ($1.66 per month) is a deal breaker you’re likely not saving enough to justify a membership currently anyhow.
$99 is $8.25 a month, or around 2 packages (and not having to spend $25 to get free shipping). Combine that with a free book to my Kindle a month and free movies and TV shows to my Kindle, well, it’s worth it to my family. My sister’s family and parents also share the benefits of free shipping. We also have the Amazon credit card- for every $33 we spend we get a $1 for Amazon. Paid off in full every month and it also works out well.
$1.67 a month increase is quite reasonable, had anyone tried to mail a package lately and see what it costs? I use subscribe and save a lot, for example, my specialty brand dog food I have delivered
each month is $10 less than what I pay for it at the nearest pet food store (even using coupons there at the local store) which I have to travel 50 miles round trip to get to. Just the savings in time and gas, not to mention the actual product savings makes it a no brainer for me.
Great points across the board! I love ordering gifts and sending them directly to the recipient…way cheaper than the post office! Plus I LOVE the 2 day shipping saves me time and gas traveling to look for products…of course I am on a first name basis with my UPS guy thanks to Amazon haha
Amazon also does a free pre-release Kindle book now every month. I am almost done with the first one I got and I love it. If you read ebooks, Prime can be very good.
We have Amazon Prime but have never used it to stream movies or television — just use it for the free shipping. I’m embarrassed to say, but I’m not even sure how to stream movies or television using Amazon Prime. Is it something where I can only watch the movie on the computer I ordered Amazon Prime from? Or can I hook that computer up to my television so the entire family can watch the movie? Sorry to be so clueless about this. I know a lot of you are in the know about this, so Is there a good article or how-to that you would recommend that would get me up to speed on how to best take advantage of the free streaming?
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4746083
If your TV has HDMI ability (somewhat newer ones, only flat screen) and your computer has HDMI ability, you can connect the two together with a cable and watch streaming on your TV. Here is a link: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/tech-tips-and-tricks/dave-taylor-hdmi-article.html
Thank you! That is very helpful. I save so much more than the membership cost by not having to pay sales tax..at least for now. I love the price matching, free shipping, movies, access to apps, and not having to drive around to stores for hard to find items. I think even at $99 it’s still a great value.
Or if you have a smart TV there’s usually an app or a device hooked up to it like a Roku/Xbox/Playstation (i can’t recall which have Amazon…most that have netflix have Amazon.
Definitely keeping it. I have the student account and use use it all the time. A $10 increase seems reasonable after 9 years!
Why I am keeping Prime: Netflix is $14.99 a month for streaming and one movie mailed at a time. With Prime going up, that makes it $8.25 a month,
Bonus buys with Amazon saving sometimes up $10 savings on an item because I’m a prime member, streaming capabilities, free 2 day shipping all year long. Yes I am keeping.
Someone is Washington State is suing Amazon on Prime – here’s an article on it https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2579813/In-LOVE-Amazon-Prime-free-shipping-Not-fast-Lawsuit-claims-company-hikes-prices-make-lost-postage-fees.html
I like the comment someone posted at that link: “This lawyer is also suing Mother Nature for advertising that the sky is blue, when in Seattle, it is actually grey a good portion of the time.”
I get so tired of those class action lawsuits. Although there may be some legitimate concerns with some of the them, usually the only ones that profit from them are the money grubbing lawyers that latch onto a new source of personal income for themselves. I have received unsolicited mail from some of these lawsuits that have so “graciously” included me because I have purchased from the company they are suing. I think after reading the fine details I have been awarded something in the range of $1 nearly every time.
I am glad to see that it’s not increasing until 2015. My membership is set to renew in October, and my Oct. 2014 price will still be $79. That gives plenty of time to think about whether or not it’s worth $99.
You might want to check that Kristen or I might want to complain b/c my membership is due to renew in August and my August 2014 price is $99. I’d really like to know if this is true or not. Thanks so much.
We are canceling. $99 is a bit ridiculous! I think I actually bought more when I didn’t have to think about shipping, didn’t have to take out cash or a card, and could have it at my front door in a matter of days.
So true…Just this morning, click, I ordered a book advertized here…on how to draw things. Totally not on my shopping list.
Can someone give me info on the streaming? Can you watch current shows or is it more like you have to wait for the season to come out on DVD before you can watch it on Amazon?
Also – Does this take up a lot of GB on your internet? I have 10 GB a month with my plan and just wanted to know if it would be worth if for me to even mess with.
A $20 increase over a period of — 12 months — isn’t that ridiculous, IMHO (an increase of only $1.67 a month… that is a pack of gum, or a Redbox movie etc … ). I will definitely renew, but luckily, my membership renews in 2 days and will stay at the $79 price, next years price will go up to $99. It is all a matter of how you look at things. For me and my family, we are able to find really good deals on Amazon vs local stores where we can have the merchandise at our door step in 2 business days. I do not like to stop at a store for just one item… and if I need, say an ink cartridge, I can pay the same $12.99 price I would at Target, but order it Monday and have it arrive Wednesday right at my door. The kids can shop on Amazon for something (vs standing in the aisles for what seems like hours trying to pick something out), save up to purchase an item, order it with free shipping and it comes again… right to the door.
Yes, we will be keeping our benefits even with the increase. We use our membership daily. It is well worth the money.
I’m with you!! My family uses our membership daily too…the convenience and all the amazing benefits are totally worth it for us!
Yep, we’ll renew. We’ve received excellent customer service and use it enough to justify the price.
I will be keeping it, I actually wrote them a love letter just the other week. For me $99 is paid for just in everything I ship but I also stream shows and movies, use the Kindle Library, get a free new release book each month with Kindle Read it First and love their autorip policy when you buy cds that immediately gives you all the songs in MP3 for no additional cost. And their customer service is way better than service I’ve gotten anywhere else. I really don’t think a modest increase is too much for all that.
I just signed up for prime a few months ago after much debate and now it’s gonna go up. I will probably keep it anyway because looking at what I spent last year on amazon it would still save me money to have prime. My husband and I have a business so we buy supplies from amazon. Plus all the hot Christmas deals and grownup toys my husband buys himself, lol.
My daughter will be a college student next year so I will force her to get the $49 student deal and cancel my $99 one. She will be living at home while attending college so it should work out. We are in alaska so shipping always takes forever and I haven’t found streaming to be valuable for us. No shows we care about are free, and we have cable in a bundle so we have to keep it. We also have the $7.99 netflix and use that a lot. If I wasnt going to switch to student price next year I would probably cancel. Mine expires on jan 16, 2014 and will cost $99 at that point if I didn’t get a student deal.
Over the course of a year, we add enough extra items to our cart to get “free” shipping on our orders, that the prime membership pays for itself. And I like the books and the TV series that I wouldn’t normally catch. (If you’re a fan of Downton Abbey, try Upstairs/Downstairs.) With the minimum order increasing to $35, I foresee more “extras” than ever in our carts! It’s sad, but it will SAVE us money, instead of costing us.
I don’t think it’s that bad. Break it down per month and it seems way better! Personally, I use Amazon prime enough to cover that $99 + lots more. For the Christmas season alone last year, I kept track of what my shipping charges would’ve been for 3 months while buying gifts on Amazon. Just for Christmas alone, shipping was over $120 – but free with Prime. Definitely worth it since I shop on Amazon weekly.
Well it was worth getting to watch the first three seasons of Downton Abbey all at once, bwahahaha!
Amen to that!
That was the only reason I got amazon prime!!! I’m totally hooked….I just watched three seasons in four days….and even then I forced myself to leave the iPad every few hours! Haha! Why can’t we watch season four?!? Does anyone know how to watch it? I’m so thankful for the answer!
We just discovered watching movies thru Amazon Prime. This is so wonderful!! Not only is the a good deal for shipping but for books and movies you just can’t beat this. I definitely will renew at the new price. I obviously hate to see the price increase since my paycheck never seems to increase but I just love Prime!
I have amazon student and it just renewed a few weeks ago. I just use it for shipping, not the videos. I would definately not renew at 99$, and I will be done with school before the next renewal. If their video content was like netflix that might change things a bit.
I hope to move out of the city within the year. Due to the amount I order, and with gas prices, it will be worth it. For those who are on the fence, do some calculations. I don’t think it’s worth it for every family.
Unfortunately for me, I live in NC where we are now being taxed. I hate seeing that extra charge on my orders =( That along with the $20 increase, means I will not renew. I’m already ordering less bc of the taxes. I’m bummed but understand.
That’s not Amazon’s fault and in most states you should be declaring online purchases on your taxes anyway (often times any out of state purchases as well).
I will absolutely renew this as I order many things from Amazon at far less prices than brick and mortar stores’ sale prices. Also, as a Prime member you can join Amazon Mom for free. 20% off diapers and wipes (of course delivered free to your door!) more than pays for the membership in a few months.
Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/mom/signup/info?ie=UTF8&refcust=6OHQFEAJR5VWOYLPYGEZMGHNDM&ref_type=generic
Thanks in advance if you use my referral link!
I am bummed about the increase but understand. I often wonder how Amazon affords to do what it already does. I shop Amazon daily, and I will definitely be renewing at the new price
I got the email today but it said my student membership would renew at $49 instead of the normal $39 when it expires in October.
I will totally renew. IMHO, this is still a HOT deal.
I will be keeping it. We get the student rate and I find that fabulous, especially as many subscribe and save things as I have. I also live in a small town, 3 hours away from any Costco or Sam’s Club, so it really does save me money. As for those suing, it makes me laugh. Research your prices. If I can find it at a lower price (including shipping) at a place other than Amazon, I buy it there instead. I also use sites like camelcamelcamel to track prices and alert me when a product drops to a desired price on Amazon. Between all of that, I end up with great deals. It is totally worth it to me (especially when I just paid $7.49 for only one package shipped from zulily).