Did you get the email a few weeks back about Amazon’s price hike, read it, and immediately forget until now? With the change coming upon us, it’s important to think through the additional price Amazon is asking for. For some, this price increase might make the platform no longer be worth the price for them.
Either way, paying less is always better than paying more. So, is there a way to avoid Amazon Prime’s fee hike? The answer is yes! Keep reading to find out how!
What is the Amazon Prime Increase?
The price hike is already in effect for new accounts that signed up after the 18th of February. For accounts that were open before this, the fee hike is taking place on the 25th of March. After this time, Amazon Prime monthly subscriptions will increase from $12.99 to $14.99 per month.
Accordingly, the annual subscription rate will also increase from $119 to $139 per annum. According to CNBC, students can also expect to pay more, increasing from $59 – $69. With this, nobody is safe from the impending price rise.
It may not seem like much to some but every service has its limit on what people are willing to pay. Some may consider this small-seeming change to bump Amazon out of the realm of affordability. Before you go questioning in Amazon Prime is worth keeping, it might be worth seeing if you can avoid the hike altogether.
How to avoid Amazon Prime’s fee hike
While it isn’t always possible, many can find success in avoiding the new price for some time yet. Some of the common steps to avoid Amazon prime’s fee hike include
Free Trial
New users can sign up for a free 30-day trial with Amazon Prime. This allows new users to try the platform out before committing to it. If you don’t believe that it is worth the price, simply do not sign up after your trial is over!
Purchase an Annual Subscription
The chance has already passed to purchase an annual subscription at the lower rate for Prime. Still, annual memberships save money which can offset the increase in cost. Paying the monthly rate of $14.99 for a year comes out to roughly $180.
With an annual subscription at just $139, users can save over $40 by paying upfront. If you already know that you will be using your service for the whole year, it only makes sense to take this step.
Bundle with Your Subscription
Amazon offers several options for bundles. These include phone subscriptions as well as Amazon Prime services. If you’re currently spending money on Spotify and Amazon, it would make sense to get Amazon Music, bundle the two, and get rid of Spotify, for example.
In addition to being more cost-effective on its face, Amazon offers lucrative bundle promotions for things just like this.
Consolidate
To that end, if you use Prime more than other streaming services, cancel your other ones. You can avoid feeling the additional price imposed by Amazon if you are replacing other services with it. Prime video, music, and audiobooks could all potentially knock some of your current platforms off their rotation.
Cancel
Don’t want to pay the price hike and still not convinced by the other options? Maybe canceling is the best bet for you then. While it would be great for every service to mean the same to everyone, sometimes you just don’t get the return needed to justify the purchase.
If this is the case, there is no penalty for canceling and coming back later on a monthly basis if you change your mind. Simply head to your account, click on your membership, select “Manage Prime Membership” and click End Prime Membership.”
Conclusion
Since the beginning of time, prices have steadily risen upwards. It’s common sense that this would happen to services we use every day like Amazon Prime as well. While we’d all like to avoid the inevitable, sometimes all you can do is swallow the additional fee and move on.
In this instance, that isn’t necessarily the case – depending on how creative you’re willing to get! Still, for many, the sheer ease of use with Amazon makes the price worth it at almost every level.
Amazon (and every other streaming service) has steadily risen in price since its inception. It doesn’t seem as though they’ve found a price the public isn’t willing to pay yet!
At Anata, we help businesses navigate the tricky world of online sales on the Amazon marketplace. If you want to see about offsetting your prime membership through a successful online business, reach out and we’d be thrilled to talk with you!
What do you think of the new price point for Amazon? Is it fair for them to continue raising prices and is there a price point that you think would be too much?
