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Amazon Prime has been in the news quite a lot recently, mainly because Jeremy Clarkson and the rest of the old Top Gear presenters have been snapped up by Amazon for a motoring show following Clarkson’s sacking by the BBC.
Amazon Prime has actually been around in the UK in various guises since 2007 though.
Over time more benefits have gradually been added to it and it now offers a lot for your money, provided you’re going to take actually use what it offers. So let’s take a look at what Amazon Prime is and what it has to offer.
What Is Amazon Prime?
Amazon Prime is a subscription service offered by Amazon
- Unlimited free 1 day delivery from Amazon UK.
- Unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows through Amazon Prime Instant Video (which used to be LoveFilm).
- Unlimited downloads and streaming of music through Amazon Music.
- Unlimited storage of your photos on Amazon Cloud Drive via Amazon Prime Photos.
- The ability to read over 800,000 free e-books.
- Access to the Kindle owners lending library – the ability to borrow for free over half a million Kindle books (on a Kindle device). You can borrow one book per month.
- Special early access to Amazon Lightning Deals – you get access to these half an hour before everyone else.
How Much Does Amazon Prime Cost?
The current cost of Amazon Prime is £79 per year. Students can get access for the reduced fee of just £39 a year. Unfortunately, you have to pay for a full year’s membership at a time; there is no monthly payment option.
Free Trial
If you want to give Amazon Prime a try without stumping up the £79 fee, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial. This gives you full access to all the Prime benefits. You do have to enter payment details though and you’ll be charged after the 30 days if you don’t cancel, so don’t forget to do so before the end of the 30 days if you don’t want to sign up for the year.
How To Cancel Amazon Prime
You can cancel your Amazon Prime membership at any time. Here’s how you do it…
Within The 30 Day Trial Period
- Login to Amazon
- In the menu options select “Your Account”
- Under “Account Settings” click on “Manage Prime Membership”
- Click on the “Do not continue” option (this is the second option on the left-hand side of the page)
Once you cancel your membership within the 30-day trial period you’ll still get the Prime services right up until your free trial period ends. At that point your membership will cancel, and your card won’t be charged. So if you’re not going to be continuing with Prime membership after the trial, it’s worth cancelling as soon as you make this decision so you don’t forget later and automatically get charged the membership fee.
After The 30 Day Free Trial Period Has Ended
- Login to Amazon
- In the menu options select “Your Account”
- Under “Account Settings” click on “Manage Prime Membership”
- Click on the “End membership” option (this is the second option on the left-hand side of the page)
If you’ve not used any of the Prime services since your free trial ended you should automatically be refunded your £79 fee. If you’ve used any of the services, you don’t normally get a refund. You can try contacting Amazon and asking them to refund you.
Is Amazon Prime Worth It?
So the million dollar question is “Is Amazon Prime worth it?” Well, the answer really is that it depends. The £79 a year cost works out to be £6.98 a month. So you need to bear this in mind and work out if you’re going to use all the features to get value for your money. Here’s a few tips:
Who’s It Good For?
If you buy a lot of stuff at Amazon that you want quickly, then it’s worth it just for the free next day delivery alone. This is regardless of whether or not you’re going to take advantage of Prime Video and Prime Music and the Kindle library.
If you’re interested in the video streaming of Prime Video and you also shop at Amazon on a regular basis and/or like to read Kindle books then Prime represents excellent value for money. Of course, this is provided it offers the movies and TV shows you want to watch. So you should check that first.
If you read a lot of Kindle books, then the Kindle lending library is almost worth the cost of membership alone. Add in the free delivery and video and music streaming and Prime is great value for money.
Who May It Not Be Right For?
If you not interested in the other aspects of the service such as video and music streaming and the Kindle library, and you’re prepared to wait a few days to receive your orders then it’s probably not worth the cost.
If you’re looking for a video streaming service then you need to compare what Prime offers compared to Netflix and see which best suits your needs. And keep in mind, that Amazon offers Amazon Instant Video as a standalone service for £5.99 per month, if you’re not interested in the other benefits that Prime has to offer.
If you’re just looking for a music streaming service, the Amazon Music part of Prime (which isn’t available as a standalone option) only has access to just over 1 million songs. Dedicated subscription services such as Spotify offer a much larger music library and are much better value for money in this case. Of course, you don’t get the other Prime benefits with these other services.
Summary
Amazon Prime represents excellent value for money for most regular Amazon customers. You can sign up for the free 30 day trial buy clicking the banner below.
