Amazon continues to make Prime a little less awesome (boohoo!)—starting mid-April, the yearly cost of Prime membership will be increasing from $79/year to $99/year.
Personally, I will continue to pay for Prime, because I figure it’s saved me well beyond that $100 each year. That’s not going to stop me from grumbling a little, though. As one does.
Here’s the good news, though: If you’ve been thinking about getting Prime, well, now would be a great time to sign up, before the price increase, obviously. And the better news is that if you have Prime already and your renewal date is past mid-April, here’s how to get one more year at the old rate! Just go purchase a Prime gift subscription for yourself (you can use the same email addy, even) and set the gifting date as the day after your current subscription expires. Then turn off your auto-renew. Voila, you’ll automagically get an email about your gift on the day you specify, and then you can turn your auto-renew back on (if you like), and you’ve saved $20.
Awesome, thank you!!
Brilliant! But how do I turn off auto renew?
Dawna beat me to it! Thanks, Dawna!
Thank you so much. This was very helpful. Karen, if you click on “Help” at the bottom of the page, it walks you through the turning off of auto-renew. It instructs you to click on “end membership”. Don’t be afraid; it works. You can turn it off as of your last day.
Thanks, Dawna. I was afraid to hit end membership but they do ask for a date as you said. I bet I will be confused when I get the gift from myself next August!
Does the change affect monthly memberships do you know? t
That I don’t know, Em.
Em, I was going to ask the same thing.
Thanks, Mir. I’m now good through most of 2015. 🙂
Oh, that is just stupendous! I, too, was grumbling just a bit yesterday, with the full knowledge that I would pay the extra $20 regardless. Now I know I don’t have to…just yet!
Buy two gifts and set the second one to apply the next year. Wonder if they’d allow that.
Thanks! One thing to note was the text “Try Prime in the next 6 days to lock in your first year for $79” so there is a time limit to lock in $79 rate.
Wow, my current membership goes through Jan 23, 2015, so with this I am good until 2016! Thanks!
Since I’m scared to hit “end membership” i’m going to have them send me a reminder 3 days prior to renewal, I’ll cancel then, and then get the “gift” membership for myself a few days later. (I bought it already, thanks Mir!)
I’m good through December 2015!
Ironically, I’ll now be saving a few dollars. I took advantage of that $7.99 monthly plan that they offered very (very!) briefly as a test a while back. I liked that I wasn’t having to come up with $79 in one chunk, even though, yes, I was going to end up paying $95.88 per year for the convenience.
Fast forward to the price increase: I did NOT get an email yesterday telling me the cost of my Prime membership was going up. So I’ll still be paying $95.88/yr apparently.
Just bought another year, thanks! Tried to buy two years worth but they wouldn’t let me buy that far in advance 🙁 Thanks so much for the tip though!
Mir, did you see that Shop Runneris offering free trial membership in response to the Prime increase? I signed up for it–they promise not to auto-renew, and they don’t even ask for a credit card. [I’m not getting a kickback, just sharing the info.]
Brilliant! I also have ShopRunner—I have never paid for it, they just often offer ways to get it (or extensions) for free.
Some American Express cards are eligible for free ShopRunner accounts as well. If anyone has an AmEx, definitely check it out to see if you’re eligible!
I noticed that the price increase is scheduled to go into effect April 17. As someone waiting on a tax refund, I’m glad this isn’t one of those “do right this minute or the window of opportunity is closed!” things. The gift membership to yourself thing is brilliant.
I have read about this trick somewhere else too, and one of the commenters mentioned that Amazon will sometimes cancel prime accounts for tampering/misuse and that this might be a reason for an account being cancelled. I’m all for saving the $20, but I’d had to have my account cancelled.
Amazon is absolutely known to cancel Prime accounts for misuse—that would include sharing a Prime account across households or such. I don’t see getting in on one more year at the lower price (when it’s available for future purchase) as “cheating” in any way, or I wouldn’t be sharing it here.
How do you get Shoprunner for free (or extended)? I have paid for several years now!
Hmmmm. I’ve gotten perks for being a subscriber for a certain length of time (a refund without having to bother sending the small item back, etc.). I feel like this might mess that up.
Did you know that if your package does not arrive by its guaranteed delivery date you can open a chat with them and they will either extend your prime by a month or give you a gift card credit? I got $10 last time.