Is Amazon Prime Worth The Money?
Amazon prime is something I’ve had for many years and it started when I was an Amazon prime student, I’ll get onto that a little bit later. I wanted to put a post together with all the Amazon prime information you could want to help you decide if Amazon prime is worth the money. Personally, I think it is because I order a lot, listen to music on my devices and love Amazon prime day around Christmas time.
I want to point out that you don’t need to have Amazon prime to use your Alexa devices. In fact, there is loads that you can do with Alexa without having to fork out for an Amazon Prime membership. Take a look at my 12 Free Ways To Use Alexa Echo Without Amazon Prime post to find out how to use Amazon for free.
How much does Amazon Prime cost?
There are different types of Amazon Prime memberships to pick from depending on what suits you best. I would advise everyone to start with a free Amazon prime trial that doesn’t cost anything, however, make sure you cancel it at the end of the 30 days or just before. Don’t get into debt getting an Amazon prime membership and make sure you can afford whichever option you go with.
Amazon Prime Free Trial – 30 Days Free Prime
You can sign up to get a free Amazon prime trial which lasts for 30 days currently. You can only get a free trial if you haven’t used it before, rules may change though. I would advise not using this free trial unless you really want to, it’s better to leave it for Amazon Prime Day or Amazon Black Friday Deals. That way you’ll get the deals before others and it’ll make Christmas a lot cheaper.
This Amazon free trial is for anyone with an Amazon account, which means it doesn’t matter if you’re all using the same address. If you all want to go on a shopping spree, you can all get prime at the same time. You can get your free Amazon Prime Trial here and it’s well worth it, try before you buy.
Amazon Prime Annual Price – £95
The annual price for Amazon prime is currently £95, this used to be £79 however, there was a price increase in 2022. Due to the increase, I know a lot of people have cancelled their Amazon prime account because they don’t think Amazon prime is worth the money anymore. To justify the cost you need to make sure you are taking full advantage of the perks that Amazon prime gives you.
Amazon Prime Monthly Cost – £8.99
The monthly cost for Amazon prime is currently at £8.99, which is an increase from the £7.99 it was in 2022. I will point out that the £8.99 does work out more expensive than the annual cost for Amazon prime, so if you’re sure you want Amazon prime and can deal with the Amazon prime cost, get the year subscription. The monthly prime membership is good if you only want it for a couple of months, say around Prime Day and Black Friday as you can then cancel it after you’ve used it how you want.
Amazon Prime Student Cost – £47.49
With the Amazon prime student account, you’ll get the first 6 months free and then you have to pay for the second half. You can either pay the full amount of £47.49 or you can pay a monthly cost for the remaining 6 months which is £4.49. Again it is up to you what option you take, it depends on what you can afford at the time. The student prime account is per person as well, so if you’re living in student accommodation with 4 of you, you can all get the Amazon prime student account.
What Is Included With Amazon Prime
There are actually several benefits with Amazon prime that I take advantage of, some even on a daily basis. So for me, Amazon prime is worth it. That being said, it’s all about what you want Amazon prime for. Take a look at some of the things included with Amazon Prime below and make up your own mind.
Amazon Free delivery
With Amazon prime shipping you can get next day delivery on most items sold on Amazon. In some areas where there’s an Amazon warehouse, if they have your item you could even get Amazon same day delivery. You won’t get this on all items, items sold from a third party are sometimes sent out from the third party and not Amazon so they don’t dispatch same or next day.
Delivery typically costs £3.99 per item on Amazon, sometimes if your item is over £20 then you will get free delivery although this is becoming less frequent since the Amazon prime hike. In order to cover your Amazon prime costs you’d need to order at least 30 items on prime with free delivery, if you shop that much over the year then I would recommend Amazon prime to save a fortune in delivery costs. I ordered something before Christmas and it cost £5.99 for next day delivery, so postage charges can be more without prime.
Amazon Twitch (Prime Gaming)
Twitch prime is something that people don’t usually talk about in regard to the benefits of Amazon prime. I guess if you game a lot you’re more aware of what prime gaming is. With prime gaming you can get free in game items, only applicable to certain games though such as Roblox. The one thing I like the most about twitch prime is that you can gift a one month subscription to a content creator of your choice for free. It lasts for 30 days and then you can either resubscribe to the creator or someone else.
TV and movies with Prime Video
Prime video is another perk of having Amazon prime that I use from time to time. Amazon prime video allows you to watch films and TV shows that are included with Amazon. There is a wide variety to enjoy and I will say I’ve watched quite a bit from prime video. You can watch them from multiple devices, either at home or on the go. I have my Amazon films downloaded onto my iPad and phone for when I travel and use Amazon prime video through my gaming consoles and fire stick while I’m at home.
This service will cost you £5.99 per month on it’s own, without having Amazon prime. It might work out cheaper to just pay for the amazon video if that’s all you want amazon prime for. You will find that a lot of Amazon original movies and series will be included with Amazon prime, such as the latest The Rings of Power series.
Prime Music
Prime music is another reason why I like having Amazon prime. Amazon music has a wide variety of songs and most of the time they have what I want. However, if you don’t want to pay for Amazon music, you can play Apple music through your connected Alexa devices or listen to Spotify. Amazon prime music is Ad free and you can also pay for Amazon music unlimited which has a larger variety of songs, although this does cost £9.99 a month and personally, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Premier League Football and tennis
I can’t say I know much about sports but over the years Amazon sport has included more and more, they even stream live matches so if there’s something you want to watch and it’s on Amazon prime, it could save you a fortune as opposed to getting a subscription somewhere else just for a certain match. Remember, if you only want Amazon prime for this reason, it may be worth using a free amazon prime trial or paying for a monthly membership so you can cancel anytime you want.
Unlimited photo storage with Prime Photos
With Amazon storage, you’ll be able to keep your photos and other files safe. It’s nifty if you need it, however, you can get cloud storage through your phone provider, free with Google Drive or you could just buy a good old fashion external hard drive and copy everything onto that once a month.
Digital books and magazines with Prime Reading
This would be one of my favourite perks if it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t like reading on the kindle so much. With prime reading, you’re going to get hundreds of e-books, suitable for kindle and magazines. The choice is vast, however, you don’t get everything. You can, however, pay a monthly subscription to kindle unlimited which will cost you £7.99 a month (the rough cost of one book) or you can sign up for a free 30-day kindle unlimited trial and make sure you like it first!
What you don’t get included with Amazon Prime
You do get a lot when it comes to Amazon prime but not everything. I’ve pointed out some of the things you don’t get but I’ll put it into an easy list so you can just scroll down and find it. An amazon prime review wouldn’t be complete without telling you what you don’t get right?
- Kindle Unlimited (30-day free trial) – £7.99 a month
- Amazon Music Unlimited (30-day free trial) – £9.99 a month
- Audible audiobooks – £7.99 a month
What’s good about Amazon Prime
Personally, I think there’s a lot about Amazon Prime that I like and I think it’s a pretty good service. That being said, you need to make sure Amazon prime is worth it for you and what you want out of the membership. One of the best perks of Amazon Prime is Prime delivery. You don’t have to pay postage for the majority of items on Amazon and if you do a lot of shopping as I do, it’s worth it. Don’t forget though, you can get a 30-day free Amazon prime membership around Christmas time for example and get all your Christmas gifts delivered at no extra charge for postage.
Although there is a lot to do on an Alexa device for free without Amazon Prime, you can listen to a lot more music with amazon prime. Amazon Music also does this cool thing where they’ll play songs similar to the ones you’re listening to after the song you wanted has finished. There are various other perks that you can take advantage of and it all depends on if you need amazon prime or not. If you’re unsure, I would recommend the monthly prime payment so you can cancel it at any time.
What’s bad about Amazon Prime
If we put the fact that Amazon pays next to nothing in tax and treats their workers terribly, there are pitfalls when it comes to Amazon prime. Amazon has a habit of changing delivery times, or not telling you that your delivery is delayed until after it was supposed to arrive. Sometimes you can be waiting for parcels that will arrive days later and you get next to no information from Amazon. Their drivers can be unpredictable as well, will they leave it on your porch, will it be shoved into a bin or will it even be there when you get home, who knows!
Amazon customer service can be terrible. I have spent countless hours on chat with the Amazon team to get the runaround, never get an answer and most of the time end up talking to someone on the phone to actually get anything done. I would always suggest going on a call with Amazon if you really have to, chat can be a nightmare and 9/10 you don’t get the resolution you need, let alone want. You do not get special Amazon prime customer service, the Amazon team couldn’t care less.
I have also had issues with Amazon only sending one item instead of two when I order two, I’m not sure if it’s a glitch in their system but keep that in mind when ordering. If it’s free delivery and will cost you the same, might it be worth buying two of the same items but in separate orders? Also, regardless of free delivery, the state I receive some books is appalling and more times than not I’ve had to return for a replacement, I would recommend buying books as singular orders so they’re not thrown into a huge box to bash other items on their way to you. Amazon prime is great for free delivery but that doesn’t mean your parcels will arrive in one piece.
Is Amazon Prime Worth It – Conclusion
In my opinion, yes it is and that’s because I use a lot of what Amazon prime has to offer. Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime shipping and I do a lot of amazon prime shopping as well. So is prime membership for you? Make sure you’ve looked over everything that an Amazon prime membership gives you and then decide if you want Amazon prime or not.
Remember, nothing is worth getting into debt over, not even Amazon prime. Make sure you understand the Amazon prime cost before you subscribe and pay for it. If you’re unsure if it’s right for you, use the 30-day free Amazon prime trial and set a reminder to cancel it or pay for it to continue your prime subscription.
Is Amazon Prime Worth The Money? Pinterest Picture.
