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Amazon Prime Fee Hike Coming

Amazon Prime
Written by Charlie

Last month, I wrote about a great way to use Amazon Prime as a tool to help with manufactured spending. I know many people enjoy the features of Amazon Prime and many were dreading a potential fee hike that had been alluded to in January.

Amazon Prime

Well, that day has arrived. Amazon will be hiking the annual fee of Amazon Prime to $99 beginning March 20. I received an e-mail that my current Prime membership will renew at the current $79 fee this year and I will not be charged the $99 until late 2015.  This will be the same for all of the current Prime customers (your date of renewal in 2015 will be when you face the $99).

Amazon actually played this pretty smart. They leaked that they were considering a fee hike of $20 – $40 for their Prime membership. That got people upset that it might be as high as $119. So, Amazon goes with the low end of the leak and it looks a lot better. Another smart move they have made was the fee hike being delayed for current customers. This will undoubtedly see many customers to sign up before March 20th to get this price until 2015.

In any event, even at $99, if you use things like the Kindle Lending Library, Prime Instant Video (a service similar to Netflix), and the free 2-day shipping, the hike may not mean that much to you. However, if you do not want to pay, remember that several American Express cards give first year fee Amazon Prime membership. These cards are: I do not receive a commission for these cards

Free first year Amazon Prime membership through these American Express cards is only for first time Prime members.

So, will this affect your decision as to whether or not to renew your Prime membership? Will you get it before the hike?

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About the author

Charlie

Charlie has been an avid traveler and runner for many years. He has run in marathons around the world for less than it would cost to travel to the next town - all as a result of collecting and using miles and points. Over the years, he has flown hundreds of thousands of miles and collected millions of miles and points.
Now he uses this experience and knowledge to help others through Running with Miles.

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