Amazon Prime costs $119 per year (or $49 for students). But what do you get for that $119? Is it just FREE shipping? Is it worth the price of a subscription?
What are the Benefits of Amazon Prime?
- FREE 2-day Shipping with No Order Minimum - One of the original benefits of Amazon Prime is FREE 2-day shipping with no order minimum. Plus, you get 1-day shipping for only $4.99 per item. I order a lot of stuff from Amazon, and having Amazon Prime is freeing because I can order when I have a need and see a good price. I don't need to try to clump my orders together (or order things I don't really need) just to hit the $49 shipping threshold. If you purchase from Amazon about 10 to 20 times per year and don't hit the order minimum for FREE shipping, a Prime membership would likely be worth it for you just based on shipping costs alone.
- FREE Amazon Prime Video Streaming - Amazon has thousands of movies and TV shows that you can stream for FREE with Amazon Prime. It even includes Downton Abbey (which is exclusive to Amazon Prime). When you divide the $119 annual fee for Amazon Prime by 12, it only costs $9.92 per month, which is comparable to Netflix (and without the shipping benefits!).
- Unlimited Music Streaming - With Amazon Prime, you can stream over a millions songs and hundreds of playlists for FREE. It's unlimited and ad-free and you can listen on your phone, tablet, Amazon Echo, computer, and Fire TV.
- Unlimited Photo Storage in the Amazon Cloud - Have you ever worried about your hard drive crashing and losing everything on your computer? I have, and I would be most devastated about losing pictures of my kids. I love that all my photos are automatically uploaded to the Amazon Cloud as a backup.
- FREE Kindle Books - With an Amazon Prime membership, you get to "borrow" one Kindle book (from 800,000 Kindle books) for FREE each month. You can also get FREE Kindle books from Amazon even without a Prime membership.
- Early Access to select Lightning Deals - During the holidays, Amazon has TONS of great Lightning Deals. Have you ever tried to get a popular item and find that it's sold out within seconds of the sale starting? I have! With an Amazon Prime membership, you get 30 minutes early access to select Lightning Deals. It's not a guarantee you'll get the item (since other Amazon Prime members can also shop early), but it can help.
Just the FREE shipping and the Video Streaming makes an Amazon Prime membership worthwhile for me. However, you need to decide if you get your money's worth on the benefits based on your usage. If you order from Amazon 10 to 20 times per year (without hitting the $25 FREE shipping threshold) and watch some Prime video and listen to streaming music, then it's likely worth it to you also.
If you don't have an Amazon Prime membership already, you can get a FREE 30-day trial to try it out.
What about you? Do you have Amazon Prime? Do you think it's a worthwhile expense?
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