A number of readers have just signed up for new Amazon Prime memberships to take advantage of the 20% off deal when you use an American Express Membership Rewards point. Given that Amazon Prime Day is later this month it’s probably the only time of year that makes sense to get the more expensive one month memberships. In this post we will look at other things you can do to make the most of your new membership. The below post does contain our affiliate links, but as always we will tell you about better deals when available.
Contents
Getting Prime
Before you sign up for prime there is a few things to be aware of.
- If you’ve never had Prime or used a free trial, you can get free trial for 30 days.
- Students can get six months for free (requires .edu e-mail address)
- You can get a monthly membership for $12.99
- EBT or Medicaid users can signup for a cheaper $5.99 monthly plan.
- A yearly subscription costs $119. I’d recommend against using our link though as if you go through a shopping portal you can get cash back. Best rate is currently $20 through Ibotta, then Mr Rebates is $15, Topcashback offers $15 (let me know if you see better in the comments)
Deals
Now that you have Prime there are a number of deals that are available to you that weren’t before. Here is unfinished list, I’m sure I’m missing some deals so please let me know what deals I’m missing so I can add them.
- Amazon: Get 20% Off When You Use At Least One Membership Rewards Point ($100 Maximum Discount) – Works On Giftcards Including Amazon (some people without Prime have been able to get this deal, but lots more have had to sign up before it worked properly)
- Set up a baby registry and get 15% off. Without prime you get 10% off.
- Sign into the Amazon app & get $10 off. When you sign up for prime you’ll actually get an e-mail about this offer.
- Download Amazon Assistant & get $5 off $25.
- Access to Twitch Prime. Full benefits of Twitch Prime are described here. This month Twitch is giving some free games as well.
- Save up to $20 on Whole Foods or Amazon Prime Now Online Order
- Discounts and weekly specials at Whole Foods
- Amazon Sample Boxes. You pay a fee for the box and then a credit equal to that fee that can be used on items from that box. Only really useful if you’re sure you’ll be able to use the credit or really want to try something.
- 5% cash back on Amazon purchases with the Chase Amazon Prime card & Amazon Store card. You also get 15% on some specific purchases.
- Reload gift card balance with $100 & get $10. This can only be done once and not if you’ve reloaded before.
- Free 6-Month Washington Post Digital Subscription. Not sure how useful something like this in this day and age, but is a benefit.
- 3 months of Kindle Unlimited for $0.99
As I said, I’m sure I’m missing some deals so let me know in the comments what needs to be added.
What an asinine policy Amazon has instituted on customer reviews:
“To write a Customer Review, you must have used your account to make at least $50.00 in purchases in the past 12 months on Amazon.com with a valid credit or debit card. Once your order has shipped, you’ll be able to write your first customer review. (Promotional discounts don’t count toward the $50.00 minimum.)”
So you can’t even write a review about a defective product, if you’ve been paying mostly with Amazon GCs (acquired at discounts).
The free Washington Post Digital Subscription pairs with an Acorns App Found Money of $10 invested back. This directly from a supervisor of marketing at Washington Post, “Our found money offer through Acorns and Acorns Later Retirement IRAS are going to be off and on over the next year to increase readership accounts. Our partners at Wall Street Journal are offering a same Found Money back on even there $0.99 Digital only for new subscribers. We look to be bringing our offer back end of July.” So get your Prime Trial now, but wait to activate the new subscription when the offer comes back on Acorns App clicking through it to sign up. Also I hate this next company with a passion so let’s all take there money, Ebates has the now standard $10 cash back on new account signup. They also give 2% on ebay purchases. PayPal has a not as well known Digital Gift Card Store found in the site map or by google. They also have a little known, as it’s unadvertised promotion of $5 on a $25 gift card purchase. They also have an ACH/EFT First time deposit per source promotion of $5, There is a generic what’s called in house as a T-Code to fund your paypal balance from non-government,retirement, or traditional Bank account Deposit for this promotion. Now you may have to place a 5 minute phone call to call attention to this promotion by way of Generic Source T-Code for the PayPal agent to have a way to lookup, justify, and grant both of these. Using your new ebates account, you simply portal to PayPals digital retail gift card storefront, buying a $25 ebay gift card. This now satisfies earning your $10 join bonus, and $5 egc purchase through ebates and PayPal respectively. Taking that eBay egc, wait until a 5% promotion pops up on ebates(even more by flipping to ebay Found Money 1% in Acorns App as ebates shopping trip opens ebay app for fulfillment,Acorns prompts how you open eBay by in app browser, or in app ebay app that’s already open for ebates,yes it’s a few extra clicks for minimum of $0.25 invested back but every penny here counts) But either way, portal through, spend your $25 ebay egc, earn back at least $1.25 to ebates, this purchase also kicks the ebates $10 startup in the butt in case they alter there minimum 25$ spend to disqualify gift cards. With that deposit linked to your PayPal as a non traditional ACH/EFT Deposit, once that minimum $11.25 clears to PayPal, with your already earned $5 egc purchase from PayPal in there virtual gc store, that last step of having the 2nd qualified $5 PayPal promotion is now ready to be initiated. This gives you both $5 PayPal, the $10 ebates new account bonus linked to payout to your PayPal anyway, if on a good day the extra $1.25 from spending the eBay egc bought in PayPal egc storefront, potentially another $0.25 minimum… Read more »
Hopefully all cardholders are aware of this by now, but if you’ve swiped $5000 through your Barclays Uber Visa, then you get a $50 credit towards “qualifying digital subscriptions”, Amazon Prime being one of them.
Topcashback has raised their Prime purchase offer back to the $15 Amazon GC… just saw it… John 3:16
Thanks, updated.
If you use the iBotta app, they’re currently offering a $20 Amazon GC for signing up for a yearly Prime subscription.
Thanks, updated to reflect this.
Because I’m in Hawaii I can’t take advantage of the full benefits of prime. I wish they’d give us a lower membership price. Haha
All u gotta do is buy student email every 6 mo from ebay n get prime free
Doc, when does this deal expire? Thank you!
Which one?
Don’t forget a price tracking site like camelcamelcamel. I’ve used them for years and while there’s alternatives it’s still my go-to for fishing out the best prices on things I can wait on. With a Prime membership you won’t have to deal with minimum shipping requirements and can buy as soon as the price drops, which at times is only for a few minutes.
Thanks for the kindle unlimited deal!
Welcome =)