Last month it was announced that an Amazon Prime subscription will cost more in the UK from September 15. From this date, the retailer's membership service will increase from £7.99 to £8.99 per month, while the cost for an annual membership will rise from £70 to £95 a year.
A statement from a spokesperson at Amazon stated that "increased inflation and operating costs in the UK continuing to rise" is the reason for the price hike.
It's a small but not insignificant jump at a time when everything seems to be getting more expensive and our disposable income is at an all-time low. Yet, towards the end of July, Amazon declared Prime Day 2022 its biggest Prime Day event ever with over 300 million items sold worldwide.
For many, this price hike could be the end of their Amazon Prime subscription. Certainly, it's made me assess how to get the best value out of my own monthly costs. In doing so, I actually found a few perks and tips that are particularly handy if you're looking to squeeze out as much value as possible - all of which I've shared below.
Ultimately, it's subjective as to how much you'll use these perks - or whether you should cancel your subscription - but they may just convince you to stick around. If rumours are true, a second Amazon Prime Day could be just around the corner in October, so they could be very, very useful.
1. Lock in an annual membership
OK, this is an obvious one but it's worth stating. If you're currently on a monthly subscription and are leaning on the side of sticking with Prime, then it's worth committing to an annual membership - if you can afford it.
The price of Amazon Prime increases on September 15, so if you start or switch to an annual membership the day before, you'll pay the cheaper price of £79 and be locked in for the longest time possible.
Of course, this is the dream scenario, and you may be on a different billing cycle which means your monthly subscription ends before or after September 15. If that's the case, then it's simply about getting as close as possible before converting to a year-long membership.
For those already on an annual membership, it may not be possible to do this if you're signed up for many months ahead. One thing you can try is to cancel your existing membership and see if Amazon offers you a partial refund to stop your subscription early. After that, you can sign up again closer to September 15 to lock in the lower price for longer.
This may not be possible, though, if you're currently taking advantage of any existing Prime benefits. This may prevent you from getting the partial refund option, as you'll be required to stick with your remaining membership time until that expires. If that's the case, unfortunately, there's nothing else you can do.
Whatever situation you find yourself in, head over to the Your Prime Membership page in your account settings to see your upgrade or cancellation options.
2. Make use of Amazon Household
This is one we've harped on about a number of times over the last few months, but it's now more important than ever to check you're making use of Amazon Household. With this feature, you can share the benefits of Amazon Prime with another adult (and up to four children) in your home and only pay one membership fee.
There's no need for you to have separate paying accounts, so once you've gone through the setup you effectively split the cost of the membership in half. Simply enter the details of the personal account you want to add to your Amazon Household and they will get many of Prime's key benefits as well.
This includes unlimited free delivery, access to Prime Video, access to Prime Reading and early access to lightning deals. Any digital content owned by the linked accounts can also be shared: be that books, games or videos.
A quick word on child accounts: you can set these up and choose which content is accessible on specific devices. That means any apps, movies, TV shows or books you want to keep off the youngster's phones or tablets can be deselected. This gives you control over anything you'd prefer them not to see. Children's accounts cannot be used to shop on Amazon, either, so don't worry about any surprise purchases - it's purely for assigning them access to certain content.
3. Consolidate your subscriptions
I'm not going to hit you with the mind-blowing suggestion that cancelling your Amazon Prime subscription will save you money because, well, duh. However, it's definitely a good time to consider whether you're really getting value for money out of the membership.
The big headline perk, of course, is free next-day delivery. Looking into it, Amazon revealed to me that I'd had 65 packages shipped at no extra cost over the last 12 months. At around five a month, that does seem like a lot. But how many of them were over £20 and would have qualified for slower – but still free – delivery anyway? How many were impulse purchases bought just because I knew they would conveniently arrive tomorrow? It's something to consider.
On the flip side, there are other features I'm paying for elsewhere that are already included with Prime. Take Prime Music, for example. A cursory look shows it's definitely inferior to Spotify, but if I was a more casual music listener then it would do the job over another £9.99 monthly fee.
Let's not forget, too, about the same-day delivery that's available on grocery orders over £40 from Amazon Fresh, Morrisons, and Co-op stores. Perhaps if I was already paying a small fee each year for a delivery pass at another supermarket when something similar was already included with Prime I would drop that and use this benefit, effectively saving money elsewhere.
Then there's Prime Gaming. Every month there are a bunch of PC games and downloadable extras for a wide selection of titles all part of the Prime subscription fee. A handful of these I've used and some of the games I've downloaded, but I haven't made the effort to actually play them. And that's because I'm too distracted with everything still to play on my Xbox Series S with Game Pass.
And there's still more I'm not using. I'm not interested in unlimited photo storage, I've got the library instead of the free books on Prime Reading and Amazon First Reads, and I don't buy clothes on Amazon so don't need to try them first.
Effectively, I've come away questioning just what I'm really paying for, whether there's anything I would really miss and whether there's a way to consolidate all my existing subscription services so I'm not doubling up in some areas. This is worth looking into for yourself, too.
Definitely consider this if you just watch Prime Video and aren't fussed about free delivery or other benefits. It's not well advertised, but there's actually an option to sign up to that by itself for £5.99 per month. It'll save you a couple of quid while you still get to watch The Boys and the upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series. Another small but welcome saving - and we'll take any right now.
