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10 years ago, people only dreamed of having a delivery system like Amazon which brings anything you want to your doorstep within a couple of days.
Today, Amazon has proven itself to be the leading delivery app and has gained a market share in the US of 49%. That’s 5% of all retail spending across the entire country!
While the app is tremendously popular, the owner, Jeff Bezos needed to come up with a way to make a return from it. That’s where Amazon Prime came in. Amazon prime is now purchased by 64% of all US households.
People see the value in having Amazon prime over an ordinary Amazon account, however, it’s not exactly cheap. In fact, it’s more expensive than it has ever been. In May of 2018, members experienced a drastic price increase from $99 per year to $119 per year (or $12.99 per month). Amazon Prime currently costs $139 a year, or $14.99 a month.
Although many membership holders didn’t agree with the price increase, Amazon Prime’s membership numbers barely dropped. Amazon Prime has become a staple in many people’s lives and they just can’t let it go.
However, it would be nice to be able to get 2-day delivery and extra perks without needing to pay the expensive membership. In this article, we’ll show you exactly how to get Amazon Prime for free or cheap so you can keep living your best life without emptying your bank account.
What is Amazon Prime?
Amazon is a giant on-line retailer providing hundreds of thousands of products to customers. It is a company that started in 1994 as an online bookstore and has since expanded to selling CDs, DVDs, video games, apparel, electronics and more. The success of the company can be attributed to the fact that it has always focused on delivering the best customer service possible. This has made it easy for customers to buy products with ease and have those products delivered to their doorsteps. The Amazon website offers a huge selection of items at low prices. In addition to selling products, the website also offers an opportunity for people to make money by referring others to the site.
Amazon Prime is a service that allows members to enjoy some additional benefits when shopping on Amazon such as free two-day shipping, streaming movies and TV shows with unlimited cloud storage for videos or music, free Kindle books every month from Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and much more. If you are already an Amazon Prime member then you can continue enjoying all these benefits but if you are not a member then there are still ways that you can sign up for this service without having any additional costs attached. In order to get your hands on this membership you need firstly to sign up for a free trial period. The free trial period is offered to all Amazon Prime members so you can be sure that you will not be charged anything when you try out the service. You can access Amazon Prime on your iOS or Android device, your PC or Mac, your Kindle Fire tablet or on your TV via the Amazon Prime app.
Amazon Prime is different from a normal Amazon account because you get free two-day shipping on thousands or even millions of products. On some items and depending on the city, you can even get same-day shipping. You can also sometimes get really good discounts on certain products that normal account holders don’t have access to. Those are the main perks, but there are a ton more.
- Unlimited movie and TV shows streaming on Amazon Prime Video accounts.
- One borrowed e-book per month for Kindle.
- Unlimited Prime reading.
- Unlimited Amazon music streaming.
- Free unlimited photo storage with Prime Photos.
- Prime Day and Prime Early Access.
- Prime Pantry for grocery shopping.
- Amazon elements for everyday consumer needs.
- Amazon Family for discounts on things like diapers.
- Ad-free experience
It’s clear the Amazon Prime membership is worth it. Below are some tricks to get it for free or cheap.
How to get amazon prime for free or next to nothing
1. Amazon Prime 30 day free trial
Yes, Amazon allows customers to embark on a free 30-day trial. That’s one month of getting 2-day delivery and all the extra perks, so make use of it and order a year’s worth of supplies!
To get your free trial, simply log on to Amazon Prime and sign up for the 30-day trial. To sign up for the trial, your account will need to have a valid credit card on file. At the end of your trial, you will automatically be charged for a month’s worth of Amazon Prime membership. Don’t worry, Amazon will send you plenty of email notices to warn you about the end of your free trial so you don’t forget.
This monthly trial will allow you to get the full benefits of Amazon Prime, including two-day shipping on millions of items, unlimited instant streaming of movies and TV shows, free access to thousands of books and Kindle e-books, and more.
Amazon Prime free account will help you save money, which means more time to shop for stuff. It also means that you can order anything online at anytime and have it delivered right to your door. This is the best service out there because it saves you a lot of time, but it also allows you to be in control of what you want delivered. You don’t have to wait in line at the post office or the grocery store. You can also skip the hassle of searching for the best prices and order anything you want without paying for shipping.
This free Amazon Prime account is also a great way to try out the service before you buy a whole year’s worth of Prime. You can try it out for 30 days and see if you like it before you commit to the year’s worth of service. If you don’t like it, you can cancel at any time.
Video streaming service is included in the Amazon Prime free account, so you can watch web series and movies anytime, anywhere. It also allows you to borrow Kindle e-books from the Amazon library. You can also listen to music on Amazon Music Unlimited. You can also order products from whole foods market on Amazon, or buy anything from beauty products to books and electronics.
This Amazon Prime free trial is one of the best deals out there, so make sure you sign up for it to get the exclusive deals, giveaways, and enjoy teh features of Amazon Prime during the trial period with a premium account.
Amazon makes it relatively easy to cancel your membership before your account gets charged. Just log on using your account username and password, then find where it says “cancel membership” under “your account.”
Note: if you have multiple credit cards and multiple emails, you can create multiple Amazon accounts and opt for the free trial on each.
2. Amazon Prime student membership trial
Students get discounts on most things and Amazon counts for one of them. With the student membership, “students” get access to almost all regular Amazon Prime benefits, with the exceptions of the Kindle e-book library and Prime Music.
The best part is, students get a 6-month free trial. After the 6 months are used, they’ll only pay $7.49 per month as opposed to $12.99 per month with a regular Amazon Prime member features.
It doesn’t get much better than that. But you might be asking yourself what the requirements are… Especially if you aren’t a student and haven’t been for a long time.
As many people have tried to hack the system, Amazon has gotten stricter on the requirements for the student membership. You must now be able to provide:
- A school email address that ends in .edu.
- A student ID with an expiration date.
- An acceptance letter from your school or a copy of transcripts.
While you can only re-create this information if you’re a digital wizard, you could always ask a student you know for their information. Or get them to sign up and transfer the money once the free trial is up.
3. Get approved for the Amazon Prime Rewards Signature Card
If you shop frequently on Amazon or at Whole Foods, you might want to take advantage of the cashback earned from this credit card. Upon being approved, you instantly get a $70 amazon gift card which would cover roughly 5 months amazof Amazon Prime membership.
On top of that, you’ll receive a 5% cashback on your Amazon and Whole Foods purchases. If you spend at least $250 per month between the two, it could easily cover your membership fees. Plus, the card doesn’t charge annual fees and there’s no cap on how many points you can earn.
Other expenses eligible for cashback are restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores (2%) and 2% on all other purchases.
To see your points, just log on to your Amazon account.
4. Get a phone plan with Metro by T-Mobile or Sprint
Some phone plans offer more than just a phone plan. If you’ve been considering switching phone providers and free Amazon Prime is important to you, consider using Metro by T-Mobile or Sprint.
Sprint will offer Amazon Prime for the first 12 months of your phone contract. After that, you’re on your own. With Metro by T-Mobile, you’ll get Amazon Prime free as long as you continue service with them.
5. Take advantage of a late arrival
Prime members mainly pay for prime because of the 2-day shipping. If your package by chance comes late either due to the Amazon facility or the carrier, feel free to speak up.
You can call Amazon’s customer service number and explain to an agent what happened. It’s likely they’ll give you some kind of compensation like a free month of prime, a gift card, or a reimbursement on the product you ordered.
There’s no harm in trying. If the first agent you talk to isn’t budging, you can call again. Besides, Amazon takes pride in their customer service, so the chances of having bad customer service is thin.
To get ahold of Amazon customer service, log on to your account and click “Contact Us.”
6. Sign up for Amazon Household
With Amazon Household, you’ll be able to split the costs of prime with another person living in your house. Although it’s not a way to get Prime completely free, you get it for half the price ($6.50).
To be eligible, both members need to be 18+ with each of their own Amazon accounts. Both adults will share prime benefits while keeping their own accounts (perfect if you want to order surprise gifts for hubby). You can also add other family members to the plan. That means if you have teenagers with their own accounts, they can get Amazon Prime by piggybacking on you.
7. Hang around long enough for an Amazon Prime membership sale
While this happens only maybe as often as a getting struck by lightning, Amazon does offer heavily discounted Prime membership prices. It’s extremely hard to predict when this will happen as Amazon doesn’t exactly announce it ahead of time.
We recommend you wait until an Amazon milestone. For example, back in 2014 when Amazon’s first series “Mozart in the Jungle” won a Golden Globe for best TV series, they celebrated by dropping the Prime membership from $99 to $73. That’s a $26 discount on the entire year.
8. Use Prime Access
Prime Access is a great program for those who receive government assistance. They can pay a discounted price for all the benefits Prime has to offer. Those who qualify for this program pay $6.99 a month instead of the normal $14.99.
To sign up for this service, it’s necessary to provide Amazon with proof of eligibility or that you’re enrolled in the one of the following programs:
- Medicaid
- SNAP (Federal food stamp program)
- SSI (Supplemental Security Income)
- Direct Express prepaid debit card
- TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)
- TTANF (Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)
- National School Lunch Program
- Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
- WIC (Women, Infants, and Children program)
- Puerto Rico’s Nutrition Assistance Program card (Tarjeta de la Familia)
9. Choose a Monthly Plan
In addition to its annual fee, Amazon also offers a monthly plan for its Prime services. If you choose the service’s monthly plan, you’ll pay $14.99 a month (choose this option after signing up for the free 30-day trial).
10. Pay for Prime Membership with Earned Gift Cards
Many sites offer payment in Amazon gift cards that can be used to pay for a Prime membership. You can use any of the following sites to earn Amazon gift cards for doing various online tasks, such as taking surveys:
- Survey Junkie
- InboxDollars
- Ibotta
- Honey
- Pinecone Research
- Swagbucks
- Receipt Hog
Conclusion
The goal of this article was to show you that there are options to snag Amazon Prime for free or cheap. Even if you can’t get Amazon Prime for free forever, you can absolutely get a few months without spending a dime. All you need is to be eager and apply the right tactics.
The obvious (and easiest) way is to sign up for Amazon’s one-month free trial, as it’s easily handed to you when you create an account for the first time. The other options like getting a student account are all a bit more lucrative, but when there’s a will, there’s a way.
