Everybody knows about Amazon Prime. The retailer’s innovative service promises free next day delivery across thousands of items for its members, and there are even some items which can be delivered on the same day for certain postcodes.
For thousands of people, these benefits alone are enough to subscribe to the service. But whether you still need that bit of extra persuasion, or are a new Prime member and want to see what you’re getting for the money, read on to see our ultimate guide to Amazon Prime and everything you get for the money.
How To Get Free Amazon Prime
Before we begin, if you want to skip all of this article and see for yourself what the fuss is about, remember that you can sign up for a free 30 day Amazon Prime trial. You don’t pay a single penny for all of the benefits listed below for an entire month, and there is no obligation to continue if you don’t want to.
P.S – If you want to be clever, you could time this trial in time with a big event, such as Christmas so you get free delivery on all your gifts, or during Black Friday/Prime Day for access to the best deals without paying a penny. Prime Day is coming up on the 15th and 16th July 2019 if you want to grab some bargains or watch the Prime Day Concert with headliner Taylor Swift.
How Much Does Amazon Prime Cost?
Should you very much like what you have got and want to continue after your free trial, Amazon Prime is just £7.99/month or a one-off payment of £79 (roughly £6.58 per month) for the year. Even if you want to jump straight in, you can still get the first 30 days free if you sign up here.
You can cancel at anytime which is very welcome, so if you want to pay monthly and dip in and out of the subscriptions to manage your budget/only pay when you need it the most, you can.
Are you a student? If so, there is even better news – you can get an entire six months free courtesy of Philips. After your trial, Prime Student is just £3.99/month or £39 for the year. There is no better way to spend that Student Loan, really…
What Exactly Is Amazon Prime?
There is no point in us telling you how much it costs if you don’t know what it is. Amazon Prime is basically a members-only club which gives you access to a huge list of benefits and rewards. You subscribe, and in return you get a variety of perks from free delivery and access to deals and discounts before anyone else, to unlimited use of Amazon’s range of special services such as Prime Video, Prime Music and Photo Storage. All of what you get is listed below…
These are all the perks of being an Amazon Prime Subscriber:
The Basics Included
Free Delivery
There is cost-free shipping across millions of items, whether it be bulky appliances such as vacuums and refrigerators or smaller goods such as cookbooks and DVDs.
Not only is it free, but it is also next-day in most cases. This means you can order by a certain time (varies depending on the goods), and have it in your hands within 24 hours. This free next-day delivery is completely unlimited, too, so you can order ten things every single day and still reap the rewards. Just look for the Prime logo as you shop.
It means you can buy things as and when you need them without worrying about delivery costs, and as much as you need.
Some postcodes are even applicable for the free same-day delivery service, so items such as paper or ink cartridges can be delivered before bedtime on the day that the order is put in. These are mostly in the Greater London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool areas. Check your postcode here.
Prime Now
Can’t even wait till after you’ve had your dinner? With Prime Now, tens of thousands of products can be delivered to your door within two hours, including food. Prime members get unlimited 2-hour delivery on orders over £40 and 1-hour delivery in select postcodes for £7.99, as well as scheduled delivery options.
Morrisons is a big partner, as are Booths if you are in the North. You can see if your postcode is eligible, meaning you’ll never have to do a last minute dash to the supermarket again.
Amazon Pickup Locations
If you work shifts or don’t know when you’ll be in to pick up a parcel, it can be a real nightmare, especially if you feel uncomfortable getting your neighbours to take it in or relying on the delivery driver to leave it in a safe space.
So, Amazon came up with a nifty little idea. They have lockers dotted about, so you can collect your parcels from self-service locations at a time which suits you. You can even return them to here if needed. There is no queueing in lines, and it is entirely safe, so nobody will be running off with your new pyjamas except you.
There is also the option to Click & Collect from thousands of Local Collect, Doddle or Pass My Parcel store locations across Mainland UK if you prefer a bit of human interaction.
The Extras Included
Prime Video
Prime Original Series shows, such as The Grand Tour, Jack Ryan, Good Omens and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel are exclusive to Video. You also get access to some classic television from years gone by, such as The Office US, Parks and Recreation, Glee, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy if you fancy some nostalgic viewing.
There isn’t just TV though, with films and kids programmes also being available both on your television screens and the mobile/tablet app. If you just want video without all of the extras, it is available for £5.99 a month (but if you read on, you’ll see that paying that bit more for absolutely everything will likely be well worthwhile…)
Prime Sport
Also included with Prime Video is access to Sports coverage. From documentaries following football teams across the world, to live coverage of events such as ATP Tour tennis tournaments, snooker and horse racing, you will get access to footage which you previously would have had to pay a pretty penny for through Sky or BT Sport. If you can’t watch live, you’ll be able to watch highlights or replays at a later date for free.
And there is good news for Premier League fans. With a Prime Membership, you will get access to 20 Premier League Games in December 2019, including the Boxing Day fixtures. Teams such as Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea will be shown. This is a first for the UK, and if all goes well, we imagine it could become a recurring event…
Prime Music
Not ones to be outdone, Amazon has started to rival the likes of Spotify and Apple Music with a growing selection of two million songs, all available ad-free along with your subscription. They can be downloaded for offline listening while you’re on-the-go, too. If you’re mostly into popular music or the big classics which are likely to be on there, then this could save you a lot of money every month by avoiding rival platforms.
Want more than 2 million songs? Sign up to Amazon Music Unlimited for access to 50 million of them. It is £9.99 on top of your Prime Subscription, but you can grab a free 30 day Amazon Music Unlimited trial to see if it is worth it – think about how it works with your chosen listening platform and if the app is clean to use.
Prime Reading
Over 1,000 books, magazines and comics are available, and you can read them all for free. You get fiction, non-fiction and even kids books, so whatever takes your fancy is possible. There is no need for a dedicated Kindle either, as the app for iOS and Android can be downloaded and taken with you anywhere.
Amazon Photos
You don’t even think about safely storing your photos until your laptop gives up the ghost and you’ve lost them all. So take our advice, and use Cloud-based storage to keep them all in one place, forever.
With Prime membership, you get unlimited data on Amazon Photos. You can invite up to five other people to also store theirs so you can share them with each other, and the pictures can be tagged and organised for quick access. All of this, without losing quality or resolution.
Amazon Pantry
Low-priced essential household items can be delivered to your door within one day with Prime-exclusive service Amazon Pantry. These items, such as laundry and beauty basics, are much cheaper than you’ll find them in your local high-street stores, especially if you don’t want to physically have to shop for deals.
While you have to buy at least £15 worth of goods, the chances are you will get a lot for that money. There is usually a flat rate delivery fee to pay on top (which is probably around the same amount you’d pay for any home delivery service), but they do sometimes have deals which give you free delivery if you buy certain eligible items.
Early Access to Lightning Deals
A Lightning Deal is where a limited number of items are offered for a huge discount, for a limited amount of time. Think of the everyday Amazon Deals, and then multiply the quality of the savings and brands on offer. The deal is available either until they all sell out, or until the time runs out.
Obviously, if the deal is good, then it is going to go fast. Thankfully, if you are a Prime member, you get a 30-minute head start so you can snap them up before they get close to selling out.
Discounts From Amazon Family
Starting a family can be an expensive stage of your life. Whether you are starting the journey or your toddler is here and growing up fast, all you need to do is tell Amazon a bit about you and your baby to get product recommendations and receive exclusive deals.
You could get 20% off food and nappies using the Subscribe & Save feature, as well as unlimited access to kid-friendly apps, games and shows to keep their little brains active. And it will all be delivered free, of course.
Prime Wardrobe
The latest creation from the tech giants, which follows in the footsteps of Klarna and Thread. Order between two and six eligible items of clothing, try them on within a 7-day period and don’t pay a penny until you’ve confirmed you want to keep them. If they don’t look as good on you as your imagination suggested, just mark what you want to return in your account and use the prepaid label to do so.
It is currently only available to Prime members with a delivery address on the UK mainland, so it really is an exclusive perk.
Amazon Twitch Prime
Are you a gamer? If not, maybe someone else in your household is? With a Prime subscription, you get to use Twitch Prime ad-free. Twitch.tv is the leading social video platform in the world, where gamers and those in the creative arts gather to watch and chat about video games. If you join them, you will be one member of a community of over 10 million people. You will also get bonus gaming loot every month, as well as discounts on game orders.
Prime Day/Black Friday
Amazon has unbeatable deals every day, but if you are a Prime member, you could have exclusive access to bargains galore on two of the biggest shopping events of the year.
Black Friday is big business all around the world, and Amazon has used its influence and online shopping setup to roll out the biggest deals of the past few years. Some items will be exclusive to subscribers, and you may be able to kit out your home for a great price. You will also be able to grab a deal on Cyber Monday a few days later.
They have also launched their own dedicated Amazon Prime Day, which is the annual shopping holiday that’s exclusive to Prime subscribers. Prime Day is always in mid-July, and unlike Black Friday or Cyber Monday, the deals can last up to 48 hours. Expect to see bargains across the board, as well as on their own items such as the Echo, Kindle, Fire TV Sticks or Smart Plugs. Read our article all about this year’s Amazon Prime Day for more information.
Is It Worth It?
Delivery
First of all, let’s talk about what you will pay for shipping without the Free Delivery service via Prime. All of the UK delivery rates can be found here, and they differ depending on the time frames and type of product.
Technically, if you were to pay £7.99 per month for Prime and order two separate deliveries within that frame, you’ve already got your money’s worth. You can get free delivery without Prime in some cases, but you have to spend over £20 on eligible items, which could be costly to make it worth your while.
If you ordered 13 one-day deliveries over the course of the year, you’d be spending more than the annual £79 subscription, which is only one order per month. You could cram in 18 standard deliveries for the price, but there is no doubt that next-day delivery is worth the extra money for the convenience. We mentioned the freedom of being able to order what you want when you want at the start of the article, which is great for a busy lifestyle (and avoids trips to the shops after work).
Prime Video
Thinking about just getting the Prime Video subscription without the free delivery, music and discounts? Alone, this is £5.99. To say you get everything else for just £2 extra per month is a bargain worth having in our opinion.
It is by far the second-biggest benefit of membership, but what about Prime Video versus other services, such as Netflix or Now TV? Well, the ability to opt in and out of each could come in handy if you want to binge different shows every month, as they all offer their own selection of programmes and films. But do remember that you’ll pay roughly the same price for ALL of the benefits of Prime (delivery, music and photo storage etc.) than you will for rival streaming services just on their own.
Sharing Prime
You also get access to Amazon Households through Prime, so you can share your benefits with another adult in your household if you have the full subscription. They just need to have an account. This saves you paying for it twice and technically halves the cost if you both use it to your full advantage.
In Short…
If you order from Amazon a fair few times over the year so just use the basics, then the subscription is already paying for itself. This isn’t even counting all of the other extra benefits you get. Even if you order a few things then take advantage of the free eBooks but never use Twitch, or order and watch the entire back catalogue of The Office US but never anything else, you’ve probably still got the money back. We think that Amazon Prime has plenty of benefits to justify the cost.
How To Cancel Amazon Prime
Tried the free trial but it isn’t for you? Maybe you just want a break from it and will be picking it up again around Christmas or the events? The good news is, you can cancel your Amazon Prime Subscription at any time and then sign up again at the press of a button.
Once you’ve made an account, you can log in at any time and go to ‘Your Prime Membership’ to manage it all. Choose ‘End Membership’ and then follow the instructions on the screen. From the same page, you’ll be able to resubscribe whenever you wish. But we hope we have shown you enough pros to keep you enjoying Prime for a long time to come – the payments certainly are great value in our minds.