Get Amazon Prime on a Monthly Basis

As a followup to yesterday’s post about holiday shopping, I just wanted to point out that Amazon has started offering Amazon Prime on a monthly basis in addition to their usual annual plan.
Here’s the deal: You can either sign up for an annual plan at $79/year or you can sign up for a monthly plan at $7.99/month. Obviously, it’s cheaper to go with the annual plan if you want the service for the long term. But if you just want to try it out, or use it seasonally, then the monthly option is great.
Actually, if you’re not currently a member, you can start out with a 30 day free trial, and then convert to either the monthly or annual plans. If you time it right, the 30 day trial would be enough to cover much of the holiday shopping season. If not, you can extend it for a month for just under eight bucks.
I’m guessing that they’re doing this to compete more effectively with the likes of Netflix since Amazon Prime now includes video streaming (as well as a free access to the Kindle Lending Library). But the real value as we approach the holidays is the access to free two-day (and cheap next-day) shipping.
Disclaimer: Discover is a paid advertiser of this site.
Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the Discover online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards.
Filed under: Consumer
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
Related articles...
» Don’t Forget to Cancel Your Amazon Prime Membership» Amazon Prime Free Trial
» Free Amazon Prime for Students and Parents
» Signed up for Amazon Prime
» Free 4 Month Trial of Amazon.com Prime
» The High Cost of Instant Gratification
» Link Roundup – New Writer Edition
» Singing the Praises of PriceProtectr
Was this article useful? Please sign up to receive our content via e-mail:
5 Responses to “Get Amazon Prime on a Monthly Basis”
Leave a Reply
Top Cards by Category
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
Bonus Miles: Earn 30,000 bonus miles toward Award Travel after you spend $500 on the Card within the first three months of Cardmembership. Earn As You Spend: Get 2X miles on Delta purchases and 1X miles for all other eligible dollars spent.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The SimplyCash(R) Business Card from American Express aims to help your business succeed with a generous cash-back rewards program. Many businesses can benefit from cash back categories such as U.S. office supply stores, wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and U.S. gas stations. This card not only offers a low introductory purchase APR but also doesn't charge an annual fee.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
- How to Become a Millionaire
- How to Get Out of Debt
- The Best Dollars I've Ever Spent
- How Our Estate Plan is Structured
- How We Paid Our Mortgage In Less than 10 Years
- Money Making Ideas
- How to Manage Your Asset Allocation with Multiple Accounts
- Consumption Smoothing - Save While the Saving's Good
- How to Save on Groceries
- How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
- Eleven Great Books About Money
- Dave Ramsey is Bad at Math
- Dish Network Customer Service SUCKS
- $8,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest?
- How to Claim the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Termite Control: Sentricon vs. Termidor
- How Much Should You Pay a Babysitter?
- Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience
- Ethanol Blended Gas = Lower Mileage?
- $15,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Buying Furniture off the Back of a Truck
- Will Mac OS X Lion Kill Quicken 2007?
How to save money on insurance
- How to help your family after you are gone
- Will Social Security be gone before I retire?
- Refund, or no refund?
- This battle of the sexes has no winner
- What to look for when buying an energy-efficient home
- The hidden savings in a rent payment
- How to save money on vacations using social media and new technologies
- How to budget without regular paychecks
- What do you do with your windfalls?
- Don't believe the bull

November 11th, 2012 at 9:39 am
I have heard about this new pricing plan on a few different finance blogs now but in my personal experience this Amazon Prime option doesn’t exist. I was a Prime memeber at one time. I cancelled it while I was overseas for 6 months and then just today restarted it. Amazon gave me exactly ONE option to pay and it was $79 all at once. So, it appears not everyone gets the $8/month option.
November 11th, 2012 at 4:46 pm
An interesting fact with the two day shipping. I’ve gotten my last few items within 2 business days because I’m relatively close to an Amazon shipping hub… and that’s when I use their super saver shipping!
November 11th, 2012 at 6:26 pm
Lance: I’ve noticed something similar with 2-day shipping in that it often arrives the next day. Too bad next-day shipping never arrives the same day!
As for Super Saver shipping, getting it fast is great, though you still have to meet the $25 minimum — right? There’s no minimum with Prime.
November 11th, 2012 at 7:43 pm
Prime is great in my experience. We buy a lot of items from Amazon for convenience’s sake. The faster shipping is great. We also like the movie/TV access. That plus Netflix (and other free options) gets me seriously thinking about finally dropping cable.
November 22nd, 2012 at 4:01 pm
They ended the monthly plan last week!