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.
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
- American Express Business Rewards Gold
- American Express Platinum
- American Express Blue Cash Preferred
- American Express Blue Cash Everday
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?
I have a student account and received an email that it would remain at $39 until Nov 1, 2015 when it will increase to $49.
Thank you – I forgot to mention that the student memberships will be going up to $49.