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.
They ended the monthly plan last week!
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.
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.
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!
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.