Amazon Prime’s ever-increasing price

[Ginevra]

Every year I think “enough’s enough!” But then it renews and I am again so annoyed at how expensive it is. Plus it renews now, when I feel like I’m already hemorrhaging money to Amazon for Christmas. 
 

Anyone out there quit it for this reason?

[Soror]

I mention this often to dh but can't get him to agree. WE've been on student pricing so that helps but it is getting ridiculous.I hate the subscription model of business.

[ScoutTN]

Thought about it….

[Katy]

Honestly no. But I lived in the middle of nowhere for most of the pandemic. It was 30+ minutes in any direction to get to a Walmart, middle of nowhere. And Amazon managed to increase their delivery speed for almost every obscure ingredient I ordered from them (non-fortified nutritional yeast, etc) in the middle of everyone else’s service plummeting.

I still order most of our Christmas gifts from Amazon, and many of the orders offer a $4 digital credit for shipping it in 5-6 days instead of 0-2. I take the digital credit & buy stuff we might otherwise stream, and have less subscription services now. The digital credits for slower delivery has already paid for the price difference for me, and since I was planning on buying those digital items anyway it’s a wash for me. If I wasn’t I might care more. 

[Arcadia]

Check your bank benefits. I have Citigold and their free subscription rebate program includes Amazon, Costco and some others. Citibank rebate up to $200 a year under that program.

ETA: https://subscriptions.citi.com

Edited December 8, 2022 by Arcadia

[itsheresomewhere]

No.   We use it for more than shipping so it pays for us.  Plus, since stores around me rarely have the stuff I need it doesn’t benefit me to quit prime.  

[vonfirmath]

The USPS has increased postage prices twice in the past six months. With the cost of everything increasing, workers expect their wages to increase as well. So it does not surprise me that Prime is going up.

[JustEm]

I would not use it if I had to pay for it.  But years ago my fil put me on his account as a second user or something, not sure if you can still do that.  The only perk I have is free shipping.  I don't need anything else.  

[Kassia]

We're only paying for student for now but I think we'd pay for the full price.  It's so convenient and I do feel like I save a lot of money with the free shipping (I don't care about the speed) by purchasing when there are good deals or taking advantage of the many Prime-only discounts.  

[Indigo Blue]

If you have an Amazon/Whole Foods credit card (through Chase) and you buy a lot from Amazon, the card points alone could help offset the cost of Prime membership and then some. It’s 5 percent back on Amazon/WF purchases. 

[kbutton]

I am afraid to look at the price, but I hate shopping around here. We lost our Target to a super Walmart a few years ago, and that was my go-to. 

We also have zero family here, so I like being able to send things on birthdays, etc. It's also nice at holidays even if we do travel because it's less stuff to remember/forget/pack. 

I try to buy certain stuff locally, but sometimes I can't get things locally. I feel like when there is a store on every corner, each store tends to think "I don't need to carry that troublesome item--let the other store carry it." This goes for grocery and retail. There are often GF items I can't find here, but I can find them in my parent's small town, and I think this is exactly the reason. It drives me crazy. 

[Pawz4me]

When we order from Amazon we don't have to buy gas and go driving around various places to find the things we need, plus we're not putting more wear and tear on our vehicle, so less maintenance over the course of a year. So I figure the cost of Prime is at least a wash and maybe saves us money. And yes, I know we could group our orders to get free shipping, but we like the convenience of getting things faster. I know fuel/vehicle maintenance aren't factors for everybody--if you're going out to work everyday or driving kids to activities then you can probably do most shopping at the same time. But for us Prime makes sense.

[Corraleno]

For me, the cost is totally worth it. I also have the Prime Rewards Visa so I get 5% back on all purchases, including at Whole Foods (plus an extra 10% off sale prices at there), and my Whole Foods has a dedicated Amazon Returns department, so returning Amazon purchases is actually quicker and easier than returning things to a local store. I get at least one Amazon delivery every week (usually more, and sometimes a lot more), and I live near an Amazon warehouse so I generally get next day delivery and sometimes even same day delivery for free. I also send a lot of stuff to DS at college (books, toiletries, household products, groceries, etc.) since he doesn't have a car and has to walk long distances to a grocery store or Target.

[alysee]

We get to write off the membership so the cost isn't a big deal but I would think with the way gas prices are that it is still worth it to us. 

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

If you have an Amazon/Whole Foods credit card (through Chase) and you buy a lot from Amazon, the card points alone could help offset the cost of Prime membership and then some. It’s 5 percent back on Amazon/WF purchases. 

That’s a good idea!

Thats how I justify keeping my Costco account. The rebate pays for the membership.

[Corraleno]

9 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

When we order from Amazon we don't have to buy gas and go driving around various places to find the things we need, plus we're not putting more wear and tear on our vehicle, so less maintenance over the course of a year. 

I bought a 2019 Forrester right before the pandemic hit, when I started buying pretty much everything online and getting groceries delivered. I'm back to grocery shopping in person once a week, plus an occasional trip to Target or Home Depot, but I'm so used to ordering nearly everything online now that my 3 year old car has less than 3000 miles on it!

[QueenCat]

It's still worth it to us. I use Amazon Music every day, the free shipping, and some streaming. 

[Catwoman]

My Amazon Prime membership and my Kindle Unlimited membership are worth every dime to me. I order from Amazon several times a week, so all that free delivery means they aren't really making any money off my membership fee, and I read a ton of Kindle books, so $9.99 a month is a real bargain for me, too.  🙂 

[Catwoman]

1 minute ago, QueenCat said:

It's still worth it to us. I use Amazon Music every day, the free shipping, and some streaming. 

I forgot about Amazon Music -- I use that every day, too, and my dh watches quite a bit of Prime video.

Prime is a real bargain for us.

[prairiewindmomma]

It’s totally worth it for us. The major ways I save are:

1. Sending presents cross-country to family &

2. Buying certain supplements (way cheaper than b&m stores here)

3. Time

Most importantly, Amazon provides access to a range of goods I wouldn’t easily have access to otherwise. Just this past week, I bought a studio lighting kit for photography. Before that, I bought a specialty tool for installing wood floors. I regularly buy a number of very niche things that I would have to get through speciality sites (that I would have to research) if I couldn’t get it from Amazon. 

 

[plansrme]

I'll be the cheap dissenter: I canceled mine. In fact, I canceled it 3 times because the cancellation mysteriously refused to take and the monthly fee would start showing back up on my credit card statement. I do not miss it. I still order from Amazon once a month or so, but I make sure I wait until I have enough to qualify for free non-Prime shipping. I also try to spread my online ordering around some. Walmart works great for my area, and their prices are at or lower than Amazon's. 

[Corraleno]

14 minutes ago, Quill said:

That’s a good idea!

Thats how I justify keeping my Costco account. The rebate pays for the membership.

If you have the Prime Rewards Visa and average a little over $200/month between Amazon and Whole Foods, then the money back will cover the full Prime fee. And even if you only spend about half of that, it essentially cuts the Prime fee in half and you still get all the convenience.

[Grace Hopper]

I pay mine by the month rather than by the year. I only activate it for months that I know will be heavy with orders like November and then around times when I have several family birthdays. I don’t believe their prime video or other services have been very beneficial to me at all, so it’s really just the shipping. I also think that if you buy strategically you can get free shipping by combining a couple of orders so I don’t feel like prime is some thing I must keep renewing. 
 

You can set a reminder to be notified a couple of days before it is, that way just to catch you by surprise. ETA lol voice to text mistake - set a reminder and the renewal fee won’t catch you by surprise. 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Grace Hopper

[Grace Hopper]

I should add that my young adults are pretty vocally, Amazon averse and encourage me to shop local, so I do have that to factor into my choice to use Amazon less frequently anyway.

[Indigo Blue]

1 minute ago, Corraleno said:

If you have the Prime Rewards Visa and average a little over $200/month between Amazon and Whole Foods, then the money back will cover the full Prime fee. And even if you only spend about half of that, it essentially cuts the Prime fee in half and you still get all the convenience.

And if you spend more than $200.00 per month, those points really add up fast! 5 percent is a lot.

[cjzimmer1]

6 minutes ago, Grace Hopper said:

I pay mine by the month rather than by the year. I only activate it for months that I know will be heavy with orders like November and then around times when I have several family birthdays. I don’t believe their prime video or other services have been very beneficial to me at all, so it’s really just the shipping. I also think that if you buy strategically you can get free shipping by combining a couple of orders so I don’t feel like prime is some thing I must keep renewing. 
 

You can set a reminder to be notified a couple of days before it is, that way just to catch you by surprise.

I've never paid for prime as I don't have a problem waiting till I can get free shipping and I don't use the other services.  However, if you don't have prime, they are constantly promoting their one month of free prime trial.  It seems like it resets about every 6 months or so.  So for those times when I want faster shipping and/or the better pricing like during prime days.  I sign up for the month and make sure to cancel before it renews.  Both my husband and I have Amazon accounts and I just activate the free trial to whichever account currently offers it when I need it.  I have another email account too that I could set up an amazon account with if I needed it but so far the 2 seems plenty.

[Faith-manor]

I am not a fan of Jeff B. so in a perfect world, I would not use it.  But we live in a rural area without shopping options, a really dead area, so I feel like I do not have a choice. We have our adult children as secondary account holders so they can stream off it, and it is easy for us to send each other packages. Between shipping and the points we earn (we have an Amazon Chase card that we put all of our bills on, then pay off each month so we get a ton of points), it pays for itself. I would personally love it if I had options to support other retailers.

[cintinative]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

Check your bank benefits. I have Citigold and their free subscription rebate program includes Amazon, Costco and some others. Citibank rebate up to $200 a year under that program.

I have a Citibank visa through Costco. That seems different though?

[Murphy101]

1 hour ago, Soror said:

I mention this often to dh but can't get him to agree. WE've been on student pricing so that helps but it is getting ridiculous.I hate the subscription model of business.

This is us. If it wasn’t for student pricing we would absolutely cancel.

I’ve told my husband that one of us can’t ever leave school if he wants to keep Amazon prime or Hulu/Spotify bc I am never paying anywhere near the regular price for them. 

[EKS]

I started with Amazon Prime way back at the beginning because of homeschooling and now I can't stop.

[1234]

I just got the Prime Rewards Visa because of this thread, so thank you all! 🤪 I just wish it hadn’t been after I finished all my Christmas shopping. Prime has been worth it for us even without the card, but it will be even better now. 

[Dmmetler]

I will say that after having basically my entire second semester budget vanish in shipping, I’m less likely to dump Amazon-if a package is lost through them, they replace it and then try to figure out what happened, not “well, we’ll investigate and let you know”. 

[Arcadia]

9 minutes ago, cintinative said:

I have a Citibank visa through Costco. That seems different though?

I do have the Citibank Costco Visa but the rebate program is from Citigold

https://subscriptions.citi.com

[Corraleno]

9 minutes ago, cintinative said:

I have a Citibank visa through Costco. That seems different though?

Citigold is a status with Citibank if you have a minimum of $200K in accounts with them.

[Arcadia]

Just now, Corraleno said:

Citigold is a status with Citibank if you have a minimum of $200K in accounts with them.

Or a mortgage with them. That was how we have Citigold status, with California home loans easily exceeding $200k. 

[Lawyer&Mom]

We do 90% of our shopping through Amazon.  We have the Amazon credit card, so Prime ends up being free.  I’d love to support local retail more, but I’m disabled and the time and energy savings are invaluable to me.  I always buy books for extended family members at Christmas, this year I used an indie bookstore instead.  That felt good.  Indie bookstores are important to me. 

[Beth S]

My current strategy is to add Prime just for the month of December, to help with Christmas shopping stress.
 

[Corraleno]

14 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

I will say that after having basically my entire second semester budget vanish in shipping, I’m less likely to dump Amazon-if a package is lost through them, they replace it and then try to figure out what happened, not “well, we’ll investigate and let you know”. 

Yeah this is definitely a bonus with Amazon. Any time something goes missing I just go on chat and they refund it immediately. DS's apartment building has a package room that delivery people are supposed to scan packages into, and he's had several thing listed as delivered that are not in the room and never got scanned in. I don't know if they were delivered to the wrong place, or the delivery guy just forgot to scan them and then they got stolen, or what, but if I tell customer service that DS never got the package they refund it on the spot. And when I return something at the Amazon Returns desk at Whole Foods, my account is credited immediately instead of waiting a week for the item to get back to a warehouse somewhere and get processed.

[Clarita]

I live near a major port and an Amazon warehouse, so shipping time to me  is insanely quick sometimes (less than a day) and usually if the item is in stock in 1-2 days.

Amazon has also been really good at customer service for me. They have also refunded my money when something got lost in shipment or something arrives in bad condition. 

I try and shop local and all that but, can't always find everything within 30 miles of me. We use both shipping, and streaming. 

[marbel]

 I have a love/hate relationship with Amazon, but we are keeping prime. We do use prime video, but also the free/fast shipping has been very useful for us. Whenever an appliance has broken down, my husband has been able to find the part needed on Amazon and had it the next day.  Similar with computer needs. 

I always try to get something local but it simply doesn't always work, despite living in a large metro area. 

I have drawn the line at books. It is very rare now that I will buy a book from Amazon or one of their subs, and that's only if I need it and can't get it elsewhere. 

[Corraleno]

1 hour ago, Indigo Blue said:

And if you spend more than $200.00 per month, those points really add up fast! 5 percent is a lot.

Yeah, I get back way more than the Prime fee just from Amazon & WF purchases, plus I use it for lots of other things so I get 1% back on all those expenses (including utility bills) as well. 

[OH_Homeschooler]

I canceled mine for a few reasons, but the cost was a big one. I rarely found anything to watch on Prime, so that wasn't a big loss to me. I still order from Amazon and get free shipping with orders over $25. The time to receive my items has not changed dramatically. 2 day shipping was basically a lie by the time I quit. 

I did sign up for Walmart+ because I had a free trial and liked it enough to pay. I used the free grocery delivery for a while but stopped using it on a weekly basis because tipping got expensive. Still great to use that on occasion like when I had Covid. I love the free shipping, Walmart has so much stuff available on the website, it rivals Amazon. And I  get free Paramount+ as a Walmart+ member. It's $99 per year, so still cheaper than Amazon. 

You can always just not renew Amazon and then if you miss it too much, go ahead and sign up again. All of your lists and so on will still be there. You may even get an incentive to rejoin. I have done this a few times without a problem.

[Hilltopmom]

We got rid of it a few years ago. Never watch the videos so it didn’t matter. Shipping was always more than 2 days anyways here. Now I just use the free shipping option and wait longer. (I only purchase things once I have enough in my cart for free shipping)

Don’t miss it at all.

[Hilltopmom]

1 hour ago, Dmmetler said:

I will say that after having basically my entire second semester budget vanish in shipping, I’m less likely to dump Amazon-if a package is lost through them, they replace it and then try to figure out what happened, not “well, we’ll investigate and let you know”. 

But you don’t need Prime to use Amazon 🙂

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Dmmetler said:

I will say that after having basically my entire second semester budget vanish in shipping, I’m less likely to dump Amazon-if a package is lost through them, they replace it and then try to figure out what happened, not “well, we’ll investigate and let you know”. 

That is worth something for sure!

[Corraleno]

Another bonus of using Amazon, although it doesn't require a Prime membership, is Amazon Smile, which donates 0.5% of the value of your purchases to a charity of your choice. I chose a local dog rescue and they get thousands of dollars every year from Amazon Smile members.

[rebcoola]

I'm not surprised the price goes up.  I do still think it's worth it but we use pretty much all the benefits and have the rewards visa. We use the photo storage , video, and music.   

[prairiewindmomma]

2 hour Amazon fresh/prime now delivery has saved me more than a few times when people have been sick….especially before Door Dash took off in my area.
 

We can get same day delivery through regular Amazon prime shopping if I time it right. If it’s in the nearest warehouse, it can get tucked into the afternoon route. Ds often has been able to acquire electrical components needed last minute for his uni lab studies that the University Bookstore was out of because Amazon sourcing is broader. 
 

Not every need can be planned for 7-14 days in advance, iykwim.

[Wheres Toto]

I watch a lot of stuff on Amazon Prime, and I definitely read enough books to make my Kindle Unlimited worth it, but the big savings is definitely in shipping and ordering stuff for the science center I run.    I've ordered everything from Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches to a 14 foot by 9 foot folding wall from Amazon.  Being able to quickly order something and have it the next day is great when one of my teacher's suddenly tells me they need some random item for class.   I would easily be paying thousands of dollars in shipping each year without it. 

We also have a bunch of subscribe & save stuff for the house that is definitely cheaper than local stores.  

[popmom]

Can anyone tell me if Amazon Music is as good as Spotify? I would love to cancel Spotify, but I think my kids all still use our family subscription. If I could cancel Spotify, that would more than cover the prime cost increase.

eta: I think I may have answered my own question. For the audiophiles:

Amazon Music HD vs Spotify Premium - SoundGuys

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by popmom