There's a way for some folks to reap the benefits of Amazon Prime without having to fork over the $139 annual membership fee. Prime members are allowed to add one adult in their household to their Prime account free of charge. The second adult must have his or her own Amazon account and must use the same billing address as the primary Prime account holder.
(Caution: Both individuals will have access to credit card information associated with the Prime account.) Once the new household member has been verified, he or she gets access to free two-day shipping, video streaming, online photo storage and the Kindle owners' lending library.
If you don't order from Amazon often enough to warrant spending $139 a year for Prime membership, there are a couple of other ways to get your occasional orders delivered free. When you order $35 worth of eligible products, your entire order qualifies for free economy shipping, which typically takes five to eight business days.
You can find lightning deals throughout Amazon, as well as in the Today’s Deals section. Although many of these deals are temporary, you can usually score big bargains. You’ll see a status bar that indicates when the deal expires — either when enough customers claim the deal, or when the timer runs out.
No doubt there are certain items you always need around the house, like coffee and paper towels, You’ll be able to find thousands of qualifying products available for automatic delivery through Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program.
Just pick the quantity and delivery frequency that works for you. Plus, you'll have the option to cancel or change your preferences at any time. Once you start receiving five or more Subscribe & Save products in each delivery to the same address, you’ll get up to 15% off.
Note: Certain coupons can only be redeemed by Prime Pantry and Subscribe & Save program members.
If you don't need you Amazon packages right away, choose no-rush shipping on your order. By doing so, you will receive an immediate discount or rewards — digital credits for movies, books, and music — to use later on.
But while discounts are available to everyone, rewards are only available to Prime members and you don't get to choose which you want. That depends on the offer.
Amazon offers coupons — clippable coupons (yellow buttons or orange tags found on the coupons page), link coupons and promo codes that automatically apply to your cart or require you to enter the code during checkout. But the easiest way to find Amazon coupons is on Amazon’s Coupon Page.
New coupons are added daily, and you can search by brand or category. If you’re about to order an item, check to see if there’s a similar item from another brand that has a coupon attached.
When eligible used, pre-owned and open box products are returned to Amazon, they go through a quality check before being sold in Amazon’s Warehouse Deals section. You can find deep discounts on everything from computers and household goods to tools and pet supplies. However, the price advertised as used may not be better than buying new, so compare before you buy.
Amazon doesn't allow you to sort by the percentage off discount on items, which can make it challenging to find the best deal. And sorting by price can bring up dozens of pages of irrelevant results. To find hidden discounts, enter a product in Amazon's search bar and add &pct-off;=50- to the URL. This will show you items that are discounted by 50%.
This little hack works for any discounted amount. Although the results aren’t always perfect, you'll never know if it works on a specific item unless you try it out.
You may be hesitant to apply for another credit card, but if you shop a lot on Amazon, the Prime Visa card comes with many benefits worth checking out. First, you'll get 5% back on Amazon purchases and at Whole Foods market. You'll also get back 5% at Amazon Fresh and on Chase Travel.
Amazon offers 2% back at gas stations, restaurants, and local transit and commuting, and 1% back everywhere else. This all comes with no annual fee or international transaction charges.
Woot! is Amazon’s daily deals site where you can get deals and discounts on everything from clothing to home items and electronics. But check back daily to see what’s available, because offers change all the time. If you're a Prime member, you’ll get free standard shipping on all Woot! purchases.
Good luck, and happy shopping!
