Amazon Prime is Increasing Annual Fees

JustinCase

JustinCase

UNIX/Linux
Two things have now made me rethink my paid memberships. First, got an email from Amazon today about the next increase in my Prime membership. It's going up $20 per year, I had been giving thought to canceling prior to today. The selections on Prime streaming are getting more dated. Giving up the free shipping can be hurtful to some but has it saved me enough to justify keeping Prime? I watch more NetFlix than any. I usually don't turn on the TV until 7 or 8 PM.

Maybe it will motivate me to do my shopping at WalMart, BestBuy or Target instead of the perceived convenience that Amazon brings to the table. Just means leaving the house a little more often. Second my equal pay for my utilities is going up 15% this year. Gas is now over $4 a gal & will probably rise again soon. Insurance has risen, both auto & health. What next? I guess we can blame the pandemic & price gouging. Hopefully I may save money without the impulse buys I make.
 

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Funny you should mention starting to do your shopping at Walmart, etc. instead. I just read an article about people who were protesting the rise in membership fee (especially since Bezos is a billionaire) and one lady said the Prime increase actually saved her money. LOL How? Because she started shopping at Walmart instead and was very pleasantly surprised at the savings.

I tried and dropped Prime twice. Then when I decided to upgrade my Metro PCS cell phone plan about 3 years ago, to get more gigs for when I travel. Lo and behold, it came with complimentary Prime membership that I've had ever since. Before that, I didn't feel I needed Prime because I alway bunched my purchases so that I had the required amount to qualify for free shipping. If you can do that too, no need to pay for what has now become "shipping whenever we can get it to you" for some items. Also like you, I wasn't satisfied with their video offerings either. In addition, back then their video interface was awful. I think their choices have improved a bit and I actually like a couple of their original series, Reacher and Upload.
 
Mine went up a dollar a month but even if it went up more than that I would not get rid of Prime. I use it too much and I like it. Since I don't own a car, I figure whatever I pay for having something delivered is worth it. Same with the free entertainment and I watch mostly YouTube on the Firestick. I figure if the gas and other expenses have gone up for us, they have probably gone up for Amazon too. It is still a good deal for me since I do not own a car.
 
I have Prime but only because I don't pay for it. I guess it might be worthwhile if you buy a lot of stuff from Amazon but I rarely find anything on Prime that I want to watch. I also cancelled NOWTV for the same reason. Most of my TV viewing is Netflix.
 
Alligatorob said:
Just got a notice that my Netflix is going up to $19.99 a month...
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I haven't received any notification of a price rise but I guess everything is going to start going up. If streaming services hike their prices too high, I guess subscribers could cancel their subscription during the warmer months when they are outdoors more and just have it during the winter months when they spend more time at home.
 
I also benefited from free shipping. Only reason I mentioned that I wanted to cancel my subscription was defensive. I had asked Amazon to recap my account prior to the increase to find out my history. The list was extensive & bothersome, the recap showed I had spent more on unnecessary items than I normally would have. Sorry, but the Prime streaming selections were of no interest to me compared to others.

It's like having a $100 bill in your wallet, once it's cashed it's gone. I've said those racks at the check stands were designed for customers like me - impulse buyers! At my age I've heard many times about parents passing & their children having to dump all of their prized possessions. I didn't want to burden my children with that task. We hauled truck load after truck load away after my mother's passing.

And, it's not the large payments that reek havoc on your budget, it's the $10 payments that are sneaky.
 
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Recall when amazon began the PRIME program for $50 annually and for those first few years, the fee stayed so. Yeah a worthwhile deal at the time...a carrot. Knowing how marketing bean counters think, expected that fee would rise when the rate of new signees each year fell off significantly signalling their other remaining members (me) were too resistant to be enticed. So then began bean counter phase 2, quietly regularly raising annual fees with as little notice as possible while automating the annual fee payment renewal date they'd expect most would forget bothering to check.
 
David777 said:
So then began bean counter phase 2, quietly regularly raising annual fees with as little notice as possible while automating the annual fee payment renewal date they'd expect most would forget bothering to check.
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Yep, and it will continue so long as revenue continues to rise. They will only stop or cut back when they believe they are losing lots of subscribers... Its just how these things work.
 
Alligatorob said:
Claims they will be increasing with the price hike, problem is now 95% of their stuff doesn't much interest me...
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With subtitles & my hearing aids, I've found a whole lot of content to watch in many different languages. Most of which via streaming is less than 10 years old, Prime's movies should be on the 'Classic' (oldies but goodies) sites.
 
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If you don't have a Prime membership, do the shipping fees eat your lunch? We never watch the "prime" videos, just renew for the "no shipping charges" feature. Seems like hub is always needing a nut or bolt for something around the house, and don't get me started on the books...just got a new one in yesterday. Lately it was swimming pool hoses. Just wondered if they charged shipping for whatever you bought there, not just the certain "over 25 bucks free" items... like other online companies do.
 
Capital One has an app that does comparison shopping also including free shipping for you, I was checking on some items that are available on Amazon, one in particular was 1,000 piece puzzles that are my wife's weakness for winter. Couldn't find the app on my Kindle then realized a Kindle is an exclusive device created by Amazon, so naturally they wouldn't have a venue to show you lower prices. Go figure. The app is available to install from Google's app store. Hmmm! Another reason to shed myself of anything to do with them.

I'm ordering a new 10 inch Android tablet from Amazon, while keeping my Kindle for TV shows & Movies. Found most Amazon items now are within a few cents plus or minus from Walmart & others, they are not the money saving site they once were. We pay for convenience, just look how 'doordash' has prospered during the lock downs. The shopping app is also offered as an addon with Firefox, I installed it to test it, it came back as the best price was actually on Amazon/w free shipping. $85. The next 3 months will determine whether I keep Prime or not. Right now I'm rethinking the tablet purchase, not buying would save me 62% of the new charges for Prime. Could be sixes, keeping Kindle & Prime.
 
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He, he! I don't have Amazon Prime and I don't want it so no problem for me. I just make sure that I get a minimum of $35 on each order and it is delivered right to the door of my apartment. Come to think of it, I don't have Netflix because I don't like 98% of their movies. My daughter wanted me to have Netflix but she is 35 and can relate to their kind of movies. I relate to Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Law and Order, etc. Perhaps, "Older and Wiser."

Yes, the prices on almost everything is going up. I predicate a very hard time that's coming for a lot of people. The gravy train ride is going to be over for all those people that bought all those toys! I have noticed that the price of indoor parking for high ended apartments and condos is going to be $120/month. It has been $100/month for the last few years. That is an increase of 20% yet our government just keeps telling us that our inflation rate is around 5%. I don't claim to know it all but I do know that saying the inflation rate of 5% is "just pulling my leg."
 
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It is just like anything else, to some people it is well worth the cost and others it isn't. To me it is a valuable service and not for the Prime Video, though I did learn to watch them once my bf bought me a flat screen (not a big one) and hooked up the firestick. I am really a computer person and shopping online and doing just about everything online is what I do and like to do. I can't imagine living any other way.
 

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