Club Benefits
I cancelled my Prime membership and now I'm saving $139 a year — here’s why I ditched Amazon
I’ve got a confession to make. I cancelled my Amazon Prime subscription over a year ago, and haven’t missed it for a day.
So many companies now offer — or require — subscriptions to use their products or services that as consumers, we’re now paying upwards of $1,000 a year. As with knowing when to cancel the best streaming services, it’s a good idea to look at everything you subscribe to, and honestly ask yourself if it’s worth the cost.
But let’s look at three of the major perks, and see if they’re really worth the subscription.
Free shipping
The original, and still perhaps the best perk. Now, not only can you get everything delivered for free, but you can even get some things delivered within hours of placing an order. But your instant-gratification urge that itchy that you need to have something delivered that quickly that you can’t just go out and get it yourself? It wasn’t for us.
And here’s the other thing: If you order more than $40 worth of stuff, shipping is included for free anyway. I looked at my order history over the last few years, and there were only a handful of items I purchased that were less than $40. In fact, I very rarely purchased anything from Amazon at all.
So, if you don’t need something right away, and know how to bundle your purchases, you can still order off Amazon and still take advantage of free shipping.
Prime Music
Not to be confused with Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Music does get you ad-free listening, but while you can shuffle play artists and albums, you don’t have unlimited skips, and you can’t listen to music offline. It also lacks HD as well as spatial audio. That’s why, even when I had a Prime membership, I still subscribed to Spotify.
Prime Video
When it comes to the best streaming services, Prime Video is rarely at the top of our list. If you don’t have a Prime membership, Prime Video is $8.99 per month for the ad-supported tier if you want to stream shows like 'The Boys,' and $11.98 for the ad-free version. And, even if you have a Prime membership, you’ll still have to pay extra for the ad-free tier.
As with most streaming services, our advice is to subscribe only when there’s something you want to watch. Otherwise, you’re just wasting money.
Bottom line
I get it: Amazon Prime is convenient, especially for those who have trouble getting out of their house, or who don’t have time to go shopping. But, in an age when everything costs more, you have to really evaluate how much you use a particular service. In our case, Amazon Prime just wasn’t worth it.
If you do want to use Amazon Prime, I recommend checking out Metro by T-Mobile’s deal, which gets you a Prime membership — and all that it entails — if you sign up for its $60/month phone plan.
Prime membership also includes other perks, like some discounts at Whole Foods, the full Alexa+ experience, and Luna gaming. In fact, my colleague Louis wrote a whole story about the nine Prime benefits you’re probably not using. Those could all be worth $139 a year — or even more — for you, but they weren’t for us.
What about you? Do you have a Prime subscription? If so, how are you using it? Did you cancel yours? Let me know in the comments.
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