Is Amazon Prime Worth It?

Li-ling Ooi Entertainment, Home & Kitchen, Home Cinema, Media Streaming 0

As this blog covers the many things that we find fun and useful, we thought it was time that we tackled a question that had bugged us for a while.

Sometime next month, we come to the end of the first year that we have signed up to Amazon Prime, and yes, like a lot of people we did a LOT of the ‘Is it worth it’ questioning before we actually signed up.

So now that we’ve come up to the almost renewal time, we thought it might be worth while to actually take stock and see whether it’s been worth it.

Table of Contents

Why We Signed Up

Like a lot of people, we were offered the Prime trial for free (Disclaimer: we actually tried Prime for free twice) and after the first time (several years ago) we decided that it was not worth the £79 fee, given that we were only occasional purchasers on Amazon, did not own the Kindle and still hardly watched TV.

After the second trial however, we had a good discussion about whether it would be worth trying out for the year and we decided to do it.

Our main reasoning was that we had started to increase purchases on Amazon – honestly we had taken to ‘zapping’ bar codes using the Amazon bar code scanner [Amazon App: iOS | Android] to price check almost everything we wanted to buy, apart from food, groceries and other typical household products.

It wasn’t just a ‘money’ thing – after all, who doesn’t love a good bargain – the fact was the convenience of having stuff delivered to straight to the front door was actually quite nice.

The other thing of course that shopping online, from the comfort of the sofa (or the bed) whether from a computer, smart phone or tablet made purchasing really really easy. And then there was…

The Benefits of Amazon Prime

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Next-day free delivery

One of the great things about Amazon Prime is the ability to placate last minute buyers and fool them in to believing that it’s OK to shop for things last minute – certainly presents for birthdays and anniversaries and the like have been saved by Amazon’s next day delivery service.

And to top it all, if you’re an avid reader and book purchaser like me, you’ll love the fact that you get the book you ordered the very next day!

Most things on Amazon are available on Prime, but not all are – so it’s worth ensuring that the items you do want to buy do come under the ‘Free Next Day Delivery with Amazon Prime’ category.

Optional £1 Rebate Credit

And if on occasion, you don’t need items delivered that quickly, there’s the option to select standard deliver (which may take 3-5 days) and get a £1 credit towards digital purchases. I’ve done this a few times and the credit surprisingly accrues quite quickly.

Amazon Prime Instant Video

As we hardly watched TV anyway, we tagged the Instant Video as something nice to have but not essential, still we have found a number of great shows, new and old as well as some really interesting series’ to watch.

Having said that, Amazon does seem to ‘retire’ shows every now and then, and some that we have tagged to Watch later, occasionally turns up in the ‘Purchase/Rental only’ section after a while.

If you would like just the video streaming service

INSTANT VIDEO TRIAL

While you can use your laptops and tablets to access the streaming videos, we have the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Amazon Fire TV, both of which we have found be the best way to enjoy TV shows and Movies on the big screen. You can read our review of the Fire TV Stick and how the Amazon Fire TV compares to other streaming services.

Kindle Owners’ Lending Library

The one thing that does frustrate me about Amazon is the Kindle Owner’s lending library. As users of a number of digital devices, although not of the Kindle, this is the one thing, in which as a Prime member with a Kindle, may just be even more worthwhile – it’s the one thing that I’d love to have available not just for Kindle owners.

Kindle owners who are also Amazon Prime members are allowed to borrow one book for free each month from the Amazon Kindle lending library.

Free Secure Unlimited Photo Storage

Not that we do this so can’t really comment much, but if you have an Amazon tablet or smartphone, you can upload your photos via the desktop or from your Fire OS devices. And if you have an Amazon Fire TV like we do, it can be programmed to display your photos in a slideshow or used as a screen saver.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, Amazon Prime has been excellent for our own needs and requirements, the number of things we purchase from Amazon itself makes it worth the membership, the Instant Video is a great added bonus – so all in all – it works for us.

Here are your benefits check list with Amazon Prime: