Almost three years ago, I shared Three Reasons Why Amazon Prime is Worth It. At the time, I thought Prime was a good investment, especially because I live an hour away from any reasonable shopping options. Since then, the fee has gone up $20, but Amazon has also added services.
Should I fork over another $99 to keep my Prime Membership? That’s my question today, and I’m bringing you along for the analysis. 😉
How much does Amazon Prime cost?
$99/ year. Ouch. Please note that it will automatically renew. You can ask for an email reminder three days before the renewal happens.
What Are the Benefits of Amazon Prime?
- Free Two Day Shipping. This sells the membership for me. I don’t live near high quality stores, nor do I like to shop. I’d much rather spend ten minutes in my Amazon iPhone app than an hour in a mall. Also, I have four children and many times we scramble to Amazon for last minute birthday presents. Need I mention the times Prime has saved me with the in-laws?
In 2015 so far I’ve placed 36 orders. Assuming an average shipping fee of $5 per order, that would cost $180, $81 more than the Prime fee. I think I get my money’s worth.
Not all items on Amazon fall under the Prime shipping plan, but most often I can find what I need. - Prime Instant Video. Unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows. Please note, it’s difficult to search for titles, and the selection is limited. I couldn’t find Pitch Perfect, The Great Gatsby or the TV show Chuck (all popular in my house right now.)
To compare, Netflix costs $7.99 – $11.99 per month for unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows, depending on features. That’s about $120 per year. Since we live in the boonies and have Internet data limitations, we can’t reasonably use Amazon Instant Video or Netflix streaming, but we subscribe to the DVD mail program. We get two movies at a time (as many as we want per month) for $12/ month or $144 a year. So far, we’ve found everything we want to see on the Netflix site. - Prime Music. Ad-free access to millions of songs, albums, and Prime Playlists. You can listen to the music on multiple devices and organize your library into playlists. Genres available include Alt/Indie Rock, Blues, Christian, Children’s, Hip-Hop/ Rap, and many more. Prime Playlists include things like 80’s Movies and Scores to Study To. I couldn’t search for anything specific but saw a nice variety. I can’t use this service (see note about data issues above), but it looks pretty good.
- Prime Photos. Unlimited photo storage in Amazon Cloud Drive as long as you keep your Amazon Prime subscription. I didn’t know about this benefit and will seriously consider storing some photos here. If you cancel your prime membership, you have 90 days to download and remove your files from the Cloud or incur storage fees.
It would be nice to store some of my many photos in the cloud. - Kindle Owners Lending Library. You can borrow one e-book per month to read on a Kindle, Kindle App, Fire Tablet, or Fire Phone. Like the Instant Video service, the selection is limited, and browsing the lending library is painful. We read The Hunger Games series using this feature, but we haven’t borrowed much since. Both the Instant Video and the Lending Library favor browsing over searching for a desired title.
- Kindle First. Download an editor’s book pick a month before the official publication date.
- Prime Pantry. Select grocery/ household items in regular sizes (e.g. not Sam’s bulk) to fill a virtual box that will ship for a flat 5.99 fee.
Taking all this into account, I’ll definitely renew this year, based on the two day shipping alone. I’m also excited about the possibility of photo storage. Of course I’ve gotta be careful how many photos I upload at once because of our data limits. Sometimes living on a farm really stinks.
If you use Amazon Prime, what benefits do you like best? Has anyone used Prime Music or Prime Pantry? Please share your experiences!
Thanks for stopping by!
I love Prime too – except I had no idea about the photo storage. Zowie! I recently started using Google storage (free unlimited) b/c my computer was full (18,000 photos!) I wish we could find more shows on Prime, but we get by. Also, had no idea about the pantry either. Thanks for so much info! I think I’ll keep it (yes, living in the sticks makes this service quite nice 🙂
Holy cow patty! 18,000 photos?! My goodness, and I thought I had a lot. I should look into Google storage.
We too live in a remote area with limited shopping. This is our first year using Amazon Prime, but I am sure we will renew. I have a digital post-it on my laptop screen so I don’t forget to cancel, in case we change our mine. I just started to use Prime Music and think I will like the fact that I can have the music on my Kindle. I just need to invest in a better set of speakers for the Kindle. (I’m sure I can find them on Amazon and they will ship for free) 🙂
I just looked – I ordered 47 times since this year, so the shipping alone makes it worth it for me. Of course, I would probably wait and combine orders to make it over $25 for free shipping if I didn’t have Prime, but that’s inconvenient and not always reasonable. There have been a few times when my purchase has arrived the next day – I think we are close to a distribution center.
I have Prime Music and while I don’t use it much, it is great when I do. I like the playlists, and I also like that I can listen to any music (CDs) I have purchased through Amazon, because they are in the music cloud too.
I have friends who have used Amazon Pantry, and I plan on using it next year to send my daughter care packages at college. I love that you can send such an assortment. I’ve put things in my virtual box a few times, but I never have enough at one time to fill a box.
I had never heard of Amazon Pantry – so glad I did the research for this post. Your idea to use it for care packages sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Oh, Amazon Prime is definitely worth it for my family. Between the amount of money we save on shipping, the amount we save on streaming, the time and gasoline we save trying to find items in physical stores … it’s a win win win!
And oh yeah, as you mentioned: Birthday presents!!
Does this sound familiar? “Hey, Mom! Susie’s birthday party is Saturday, and I need a present. What can we get her?” This would be something I’d hear on Wednesday if I was lucky. More likely Thursday.
Exactly, girl friend, exactly. 😉