IT’S shopping season and that means millions of Brits will be turning to their Amazon Prime memberships to cut costs.
But before you splash out on a Prime subscription, make sure you check to see if you could get a saving first.
Amazon Prime gets you faster deliveries, access to exclusive deals, the Prime Video streaming service, and a load of other benefits.
For instance, you can claim free Deliveroo Silver Plus, unlock loads of free video games, and even bag discounted cinema tickets.
And over Black Friday, it can be a massive help to savvy shoppers looking for deals on Amazon.
HOW MUCH DOES AMAZON PRIME USUALLY COST?
The standard Amazon Prime subscription will set you back £8.99.
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Amazon Prime, £8.99 a month
That’s a monthly plan that ends up costing you £107.88 over the course of a year.
And it’s stayed steady for years, with the last monthly price rise falling in 2022 when Prime moved up from £7.99.
There’s a standard 30-day free trial available, but plenty of Brits will have claimed that already.
HOW TO CUT AMAZON PRIME PRICE
The most simple way to reduce your Amazon Prime bill is to pay it upfront for a full year.
That way, you’ll pay £95 for 12 months of membership – down from the £107.88 you end up forking out on the monthly plan.
But it’s only a small saving of £12.88, so you might prefer the flexibility of monthly payments, which can easily be cancelled.
An alternative option – though not much use to shoppers – is for people who only want Prime Video.
If you’re just in it for the telly, you can actually pay for Prime Video as a standalone subscription.
That’ll cost you £5.99 a month, which is £71.88 over the course of a year.
So you’d be saving £36 versus the full cost of Prime, but you’d also be missing out on the other goodies too.
The biggest savings come for anyone that’s eligible for the Prime for Students and 18-22 Year Olds plan – and that’s a lot of people.
This membership was initially just for students in higher education, but it broadened out last year.
So now it’s available to those same students, plus anyone aged between 18 and 22. If you’ve got someone at home in that category, you’re in luck.
For this, you’ll be able to drop your monthly Amazon Prime membership to a lowly £4.49.
Amazon Student, £4.49 a month
HOW TO ENROL IF YOU’RE A STUDENT WITH NO OFFICIAL EMAIL
Here’s what you need to know…
If you don’t have an official recognised email for your university or college, there’s still hope.
You can send proof of age and enrolment to [email protected].
Make sure that you’re messaging from the email address linked to your Amazon UK account (and that the account has an up-to-date payment method).
And attach a scan, photo, or screenshot of either:
- A valid NUS Extra, NUS Apprentice Extra, TOTUM, TOTUM Student or TOTUM Apprentice card (must show your name, institution, and date of expiry). Please note that TOTUM Pro/Professional or UNiDAYS ID cards are not accepted.
- A proof of student status letter (must be printed on official institution headed paper and include student name and address, course details and start date, expected graduation/completion date).
- A tuition bill for the current term (must include institution name, course details and start date, student address).
- A tuition invoice for the current term with your name and your institution’s name on it.
- An official acceptance letter for the upcoming term (must be printed on official institution headed paper and include student name and address, course details and enrollment date, expected graduation/completion date).
If you’re eligible then you should get an email back in a few days to help you complete your sign-up.
Picture Credit: Amazon
That works out at £53.88 a year – or £54 less than the full cost of monthly Prime.
But even cheaper still is the annual version of Prime for Students and 18-22 Year Olds.
This costs £47.49, so you’ll be paying £60.39 less than if you’d subscribed to Prime proper every month.
However, there’s a quirk of this membership that drags the cost even lower.
If you’re eligible for the Prime for Students and 18-22 Year Olds membership then you can claim an extended six-month free trial.
That means for the first year of your Prime membership, you’re actually only paying for six months.
So for monthly customers, you’re only forking out £26.94 for the first year of Prime.
And if you opt for an annual membership, you’d end up technically paying just £23.75 for the first year, though there’s no way to split the yearly payment that way.
But it brings the cost of Prime down to about a quarter of the full monthly bill.
ALTERNATIVE PRIME DISCOUNTS
There are some more niche options that might work for you.
One offer available to Vodafone customers is three months of Amazon Prime for £1.
You can find the offer inside Vodafone’s VeryMe Rewards app, which is free to join.
Here are our favourite early Black Friday deals
Black Friday is next week (28th November), but most of the major retailers have already launched their sales. Here’s our pick of the best deals online right now.
*If you click on a link in this boxout we will earn affiliate revenue
- Shark FlexStyle 4-in-1 Air Styler & Hair Dryer Gift Set, £169.99 (was £269.99) – buy from Shark
- Dry:Soon Mini 3-Tier Heated Airer, £109.99 (was £129.99) – buy from Lakeland
- Sky Essential TV & 500Mbps Full Fibre Broadband, £35p/m – buy from Sky
- Dyson V11 Extra vacuum, £349.99 (was £499.99) – buy from Dyson
- Remington Almond Allure Hair Straightener, £19.99 (was £69.99) – buy from Superdrug
- Amazon 43-inch 4-Series 4K Fire TV, £269.99 (was £429.99) – buy from Amazon
- Dyson V8 Advanced Vacuum, £229.99 (was £329.99) – buy from Dyson
- Ninja Speedi 12-in-1 Multi-Cooker, Air Fryer & Slow Cooker, £149.99 (was £229.99) – buy from Ninja
- Spotify Premium: 12-month subscription, £29.99 (was £120) – buy from Wowcher
- Audible: 3 months for 99p (usually £8.99p/m) – sign up at Amazon
For all the top discounts we’ve spotted, head to our best Black Friday deals page.
And certain Vodafone Entertainment customers can claim a free Prime subscription as part of their membership – or Disney+ Standard, if you’d prefer.
O2 customers can get six months of Prime for free with new plans, according to its website.
Or you can add Prime to your O2 billing and get £2 off your airtime each month.
Another option is if you have a family member at home who has Prime.
PRIME PRICING OPTIONS REVEALED
Here’s how much you might end up paying…
- Prime monthly (£8.99 monthly) – £107.88 a year
- Prime annual – £95 a year
- Prime Video (£5.99 monthly) – £71.88 a year
- Prime 18-22/student (£4.49 monthly) – £53.88 a year
- Prime 18-22/student annual – £47.49 a year
- Prime 18-22/student monthly + 6-month free trial – £26.94 for first year
- Prime 18-22/student annual + 6-month free trial – £23.75 for first year
- Prime Vodafone £1 offer for three months – £80.91 for first year
- O2 6-month free offer – £53.94 for first year
Picture Credit: Amazon
They can share their Prime member through Amazon’s family-sharing system with you at no extra cost.
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All prices in this article were correct at the time of writing, but may have since changed.
Always do your own research before making any purchase.
