I’ve been a loyal Amazon Prime member for years – in fact, I enrolled in the program within a week of purchasing my very first Kindle (one of the black and white ones that didn’t even have a touch screen). Since Amazon Prime’s inception in 2005, the charge for the annual membership has been $79… until now.
A few months back, I received an email from Amazon concerning my Prime membership. The basic gist of the email is as follows:
“We are writing to provide you advance notice that the price of your Prime membership will be increasing. The annual rate will be $99 when your membership renews on August 18, 2014.”
At the time, I just filed the email away under “stuff to deal with later.” My membership was still 6 months away from expiring, and the extra $20 for the membership didn’t seem all that pertinent to me at the time. Now, as my Prime membership is about to expire, I’m seriously starting to wonder about whether or not it’s going to be worth paying $99 for the first time.
So just what are the benefits of Amazon Prime membership? Below are my top 3 reasons for renewing, despite the higher cost:
1) Free access to thousands of TV episodes and movie titles through Amazon Prime’s streaming service. This kind of operates like a pared down Netflix. I love this because it gives my kids the option to watch a lot of their favorite shows (just about everything on Nick Jr can be found for free on Amazon) without costing me anything. I use this service multiple times a week, if not daily.
2) Free access to Amazon’s Kindle Lenders’ Library. This is the place I go to get free books – just like checking the latest titles out of the library! A few years ago, when there was a months’ long wait at my local library to check out The Hunger Games, I was able to read the entire series for free thanks to my Prime Membership.
3) Free 2-day shipping on a wide variety of items for sale on Amazon. I don’t use this very often – maybe 1-2 times a quarter – but when I do, I’m always happy that I don’t have to worry about paying for shipping. Most recently, I bought my kids a bounce house for my youngest’s birthday and saved more than $25 dollars because of the free shipping.
Now my question is – do you think the $99 is worth it? I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth out of my Prime Membership, but I’m wondering what those of you who have also subscribed to this service over the years think of the price hike. Please let me know!
I’ve never used Amazon myself! I happened acrossed your site today for the House Rich Cash Poor & then read some more of your articles. Sometimes in life we get a chance to say alot about a topic that’s got us wondering.. It sounds like at the time that wrote this “Worth the Higher Cost”? article that you really were searching for some valued amazon user opinions.. at the very end of it you used the language “price hike”! Sometimes, at the very end of talking things through, that’s when the hidden truth or the very important key idea behind what’s being talked about is revealed! I noticed you said: “Price Hike” at the end! Just the other day I coined a phrase myself: “Price Gouging Price Hike” so now it makes me wonder have I heard this anywhere before now? Here’s Wikopedia: Price gouging is a pejorative term referring to when a seller spikes the prices of goods, services or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair, and is considered exploitative, potentially to an unethical extent. You may read more if you like at Wikopedia.. I guess its something that you feel it’s like a gut instint or intuition. I know for me although I haven’t used amazon online, I’ve used facebook as my sole source for social networking. It’s FREE! Or so I think it’s actually NOT! We now pay $80.00 per month for Uverse digital internet connection! We pay WAAAAAY too much! It’s our intuition to know we’re going to get a different service just as good for a lower price! House Rich Cash Poor! Able to pay for all our basic necessities, mortgage, + some.. but unable to put money in savings! Yikes! When we began with Uverse they promised the internet, phone, tv srvc would stay at < $130.00 per month guaranteed! It was in writing! A contract! After a year passed it went up! Phone call made to customer service & given an explanation as to why what we were told/promised/written on contract was no good! Then, the price went up even higher than that price hike! So for the first it was $123.00/month! For 1-2 years we had to pay $240.00 per month!!! A few months ago we finally gave in to getting rid of the phone/ tv portion of uverse & kept internet for now.. We purchased an RCA antenna, Roku, raspberry pie & we now watch FREE T.V.! All t.v. shows are FREE with the antenna! 40+ channels! The roku is a 1 x investment that has alot of nice programs etc. included! We use that alot! We only had to pay for it once! So I guess the point is to get rif of all the monthly price gouging price hike bills & opt for annual bills. We also got Majic Jack for our landline & literally got rid of our monthly phone bill! So yeh, if you've gotten rid of all of your monthly t.v. show, movie etc. bills & you've opted for having only annual! If prime membership with Amazon is the only annual t.v. show & movies etc. service that you use, I lean towards it being a must have! Do I necessarily agree with Amazon NO! They should have kept YOUR membership $79.00 but that wasn't an option! Uverse should've kept our services $123.00 but after the fact it wasn't! Ever heard of BAIT & SWITCH? If your gut instinct is really telling you this isn't right & I don't really need it anymore than don't renew! But if its your sole way of obtaining the things described above & you've gotten rid of all your monthly bills similar to what we've done, you may want to keep it! I hope this helps!
+ I forgot.. you could also try to estimate & + up the annual monies you spend or could’ve spent on things with amazon & compare that to annual membership fee! So yeh, if you pay $99.00 a year! You saved $25.00 on shipping! That’s really good! But does adding everything else into it come out + or – ? Only you would know the answer to that question!!