I’m not a fan of gift cards. Don’t get me wrong, I like getting them and using them, but when it comes to buying a gift for someone, I really like putting a ton of thought into it.
Granted, half the time I just end up buying someone a regular shirt or movie or book, etc. Nothing wrong with that. But when I can find a really unique item that I know they’ll love, well that’s worth the price of admission alone.
When people think of gifts, they usually think of a physical item, not any type of service. But that’s where a gift can really shine. Gym memberships. Fruit of the Month clubs. Anti-Virus software protection. Heck, even some sort of credit protection these days would be great. They’re all neat and useful services and while they may not seem as warm and fuzzy as giving someone a big ol’ teddy bear, you’ll find they may end up being loads more valuable.
Amazon does have fair prices and sometimes much better prices. But what they do have is a great system overall. They’re still my favorite store to shop at my number 1 go-to store. And yes, I’m even part of their affiliate program, so if you click on any of my Amazon links in this post (or any others), and end up buying something, I can make a small commission. Sadly, I’ve made less than $10 from that program over the year, but I still love the store and will still continue to push the brand.
Now, on to Amazon Prime. If you haven’t heard of it, you should certainly check it out. In fact, you can get an Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial to give it a true test drive. Check out what you get:
- Free 2-Day Shipping on most items (with NO minimum purchase)
- Unlimited Instant Streaming of 40,000+ Movies and TV shows
- Over 350,000+ Kindle eBooks to borrow
To me, the free 2-day shipping is the key. I’ll often bulk up my Amazon order to break the $25 mark just so I can get free shipping. Having no minimum is a HUGE bonus. And having it shipped in just two days is pretty darn sweet.
I currently have Netflix and am pretty happy with it, but from what I see, Amazon Instant has a lot of the same type of content. (Sadly, no Breaking Bad for me, though!) So if you’re a huge movie or TV junkie, you’ll have plenty to keep you busy.
And the Free book a month for Kindle users is awesome too. Yes there’s already a Free Library of books for Kindle owners to download, but come on, most of the titles available are, well, far from stellar. The Kindle Borrowing Library, however, available to Prime Members feature loads of recent best sellers. So even if you only buy one eBook a month, you’re spending more than $100 a year on eBooks.
When you add all the bonuses up together, the annual fee of $79 for Amazon Prime seems like a total bargain. Â If you don’t have a Kindle, never watch TV and only shop at Amazon at Christmas, well, this probably isn’t the program for you then.
The holidays may be over but if you’re looking to use up your Amazon Gift cards, now’s the perfect time to give Amazon Prime a try for free for 30 days. It’s super easy to cancel at any time. (Amazon Customer service is also top notch in my book. I’ve dealt with them in the past and not only got someone on the phone in under 1 minute, but they quickly and easily resolved my issues! But that’s a blog post for another day.)
Whether you need to send a belated Holiday Gift to someone or you want to try out the  30 Day Free Trial, I can’t recommend Amazon Prime enough!
Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
NOTE: This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click through and make a purchase, I can earn a small commission on your sales. If you do, thank you very much! Read more on my disclosure page.
A “free” 30 day trial should be exactly what they advertise it as, FREE. So when I signed up, they wanted my payment information and to “authorize” my bank account, well no $ in account so they cancelled me 30 day trial…..it isn’t exact;y FREE if they are attempting to get into my bank account before the 30 days are up. I’ll go back to Netflix.
I’m not sure exactly what happened but it’s a Free 30 day trial that turns into a monthly paying subscription if you don’t cancel. In order to qualify, they just need to make sure you have the means to pay for a subscription. They’re not charging you in advance. I don’t know why they cancelled it if you had $0 though.
And Netflix isn’t free at all, you need to pay for it. (It’s totally worth it, though!)
I wholeheartedly support Amazon Prime and the free trial Amazon offers. Members of my family use Amazon Prime year to year and always have positive comments about the program. An excellent deal from a high-quality store.
Free two day shipping is key here. So many times I have bulked up my order with useless things just to avoid shipping charges.
I did a free trial once before and loved it…. but on our extremely limited budget, $79 seems as unattainable as a million dollars. It is a great program, and I would encourage anyone who can afford it to get it.
I have seen it and every time I order something it tells me how much I would have saved, it’s taunting, me I may have to try it
Amazon Prime is awesome. 🙂 I wanted to get it when it first started but, I couldn’t. I finally got it a couple months ago and I go on a shopping binge, haha! There’s truly no minimum price to get the 2-day shipping. I love Amazon and I will definitely renew my membership, I hope you get yours soon. Best wishes. 🙂
Prime is awesome saves u so much money shipping
Well, I have to check this out! The shipping is the biggest draw for me – don’t have a kindle yet. I do have an Amazon GC, so maybe this is the time to use it, after I check the free trial. Thanks for the info!
Oooh, yay. Yeah, it is definitely worth the Free Trial just to get Free Shipping on whatever you’re buying with your GC. It’s a pretty neat service all around that I’m surprised they don’t push more often.
I wrote a very similar blog post about Amazon Prime when I first got it. We just renewed our membership to Prime this past month. We literally got my mother-in-law hooked on it too.
It is so nice being able to rent the top books every month. The savings in that alone more than pays the annual fee for us with my passion for books. However, I’ve also saved a lot of money on the books I have purchased because of the Prime discount we get.
We’ve also bought a lot of items off of Amazon and the discount on the item and free shipping is such a huge savings! Plus we love the two day shipping advantage.
So, yes, I totally agree with you, if you don’t already have this program once Amazon lets everyone sign up again jump on board!
Too cool! Thanks for the comments, Crystal! I’ve been getting a lot of books lately so it’s prob worth it just for that!
my step daughter has this an loves it,,me im not so sure that I order enough to be worth the cost,,I usually get the over 25 dollar free shipping when I order thru amazon,,I get my flea supplies for the dog an cat there
I’ve thought about signing up for this but haven’t yet.
If you do any shopping on Amazon and/or love TV/Movies and eBooks, it’s certainly worth the Free Trial. If you don’t, then yeah, not worth your time.
Signed up – thanks for the heads up on this.
Cool beans! I’m assuming you went through your own affiliate links, Todd? I’m only asking because I’m worried about tracking issues on my end is all.
I use Amazon Prime all the time. When I first signed up, it was really all about the free shipping, but after a while, we discovered instant video and the free Kindle book (with a selection of GOOD books), and use all of those now. It is worth every penny we spend on it.
Amazon Prime is pretty awesome. I had a trial and forgot to cancel it, then I just decided to keep it because it really is a great deal. Two day shipping is fantastic, it was especially helpful for gifts!
That’s why I set myself up with a calender reminder on my computer so I’ll remember to cancel before my Free Trial runs out. Unless I opt to keep it, of course.
We love Amazon Prime, it’s so worth the small yearly fee! …especially for diapers when you forget you’re running low, two day shipping is awesome!