Amazon Prime membership includes loads of benefits—including the ability to shop Amazon’s best deals during big sales periods, like Prime Day and Black Friday. But here’s a secret: You don’t have to pay to take advantage of the benefits. At least, not at first.
Before you pay Amazon’s $139-per-year (or $14.99-per-month) subscription fee, you can sign up for a free trial. You get all the benefits of membership, including free two-day shipping on all orders, access to the Kindle lending library, Prime Video streaming, and much more. See our rundown of the top Amazon Prime benefits for the full list.
Here are a few ways to score a short-term Prime membership.
If you’ve never tried Amazon Prime before, or if it’s been a long time since you last tried it, then you may be eligible for a free 30-day trial. After the 30 days, Amazon will charge you for the membership—either $14.99 per month or $139 per year—so don’t forget to cancel before the trial is up. (Set a calendar reminder if you have to!)
Figuring out if you’re eligible is simple. Just sign in to your Amazon account and visit the Prime membership landing page. If you see a button that says Start your free 30-day trial, click it to sign up. If the button says Join Prime, then you’ve been to the well one too many times recently and you’ll have to wait longer to become eligible again.
Amazon used to have a program called Prime Students for—you guessed it—students enrolled in higher education. That program was discontinued and replaced with Prime for Young Adults, a special version of Prime geared towards those who are 18 to 24 years old.
Prime for Young Adults offers two big benefits over regular Prime: first, you score a 6-month free trial instead of the standard 30 days, and second, the post-trial subscription price comes with a whopping 50% discount. And yes, you get all the same perks as regular Prime!
Go to the Prime for Young Adults page and click Try Prime for Young Adults to start your 6-month free trial. After your trial is up, Prime for Young Adults will cost $7.49 per month or $69 per year. Make sure to cancel before it ends if you don’t want to pay. (Your Prime perks will continue to the end of the trial period even if you cancel early.)
Some other ways to get Prime for free exist, but they’re not as straightforward or easy. You can, for example, open a new account with a different email address and then try Prime on that new account. Keep in mind, however, that means you’ll have to keep yet another account secure to protect all your payment information and personal details.
If someone in your house is already subscribed to Prime, they can share it with your account. Amazon allows you to share a Prime membership with other members of your household, which means one other adult and up to four children. However, only the adult gets to share in Prime-exclusive deals, and both adults in the household must agree to share payment methods, so this is only an option for family (or trusted friends).
You can also apply for the Prime Visa credit card, which gives you 5 percent cash back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases with an active Prime membership. If you’re spending at least $2,400 per year between Amazon and Whole Foods, this is an easy way to have your credit card rewards pay for your entire Prime membership.
You might end up loving Prime (or Prime for Young Adults) so much that you stick with it to take advantage of the free shipping and other perks. But if you’re a hardcore deal hunter who wants to bail from Prime as soon as Black Friday or Prime Day is over, here’s what to do.
The standard way to dump Prime is to hover over your account name in the upper-right corner of any Amazon page, and then select Memberships & Subscriptions from the drop-down menu. On the next page, under the Amazon Prime item, click the Cancel button.
An easier way, however, is to go straight to this Amazon help page and click Cancel Your Prime Membership.
Regardless of how you begin the cancellation process, the process itself is straightforward—you’re free and clear once you’re through.
The PCWorld team is sifting through October Prime Day deals to identify the best deals on products that are actually worth your cash. If you’re looking to supercharge your home setup with the juiciest tech sales, hit these links for the best expert-curated picks we’ve found.
