Amazon Prime Video is set to increase its prices this week - but there is a way you can still beat the hikes. The streaming service, which has around 13 million subscribers in the UK, will increase the price of Prime from £7.99 each month to £8.99 from September 15 for new customers, with annual membership increasing from £79 to £95 per year in the UK.
In July, when the change was announced, an Amazon Prime spokesperson said it had been down to "increased inflation and operating costs in the UK continuing to rise." Major competitor Netflix announced a big change to one of its popular features this week, a move which has angered some viewers. You can read more about that here.
With just a day left before you start paying more for your subscription, MoneySavingExpert has broken down exactly how much more you will pay, and how you can still beat the price increase ahead of Thursday.
How much are prices going up?
From Thursday September 15, the following price increases will happen:
- Monthly Amazon Prime subscribers will see prices rise from £7.99 a month to £8.99 a month .
- Annual Amazon Prime subscribers will see prices rise from £79 a year to £95 a year .
- Monthly Amazon Prime Student subscribers will see prices rise from £3.99 a month to £4.49 a month .
- Annual Amazon Prime Student subscribers will see prices rise from £39.49 a year to £47.49 a year .
Prime's video-only membership price will not change, and neither will Prime add-ons such as Hayu, Paramount+, and StarzPlay.
Can I avoid the increase?
Temporarily, yes you can. As MoneySavingExpert has explained, if you pay annually and your subscription is due to renew in the couple of weeks after September 15, you could cancel just before that and then get a new subscription at £79 before September 15 – forestalling that rise for a few weeks.
To do this you need to contact Amazon's customer service team by Wednesday September 14, ask them to 'end benefits immediately' and then sign up again. If not, your membership would run until the renewal date even if you cancelled, taking the new payment until after that date.
If you had a free trial of Prime previously but no longer subscribe, you can still sign up at the existing price until September 15. If you pay monthly, it's too late to change your subscription to year and avail of the £79 price. This is because Amazon won't begin your annual subscription until your current month's subscription has finished – so you needed to switch by August 14 to ensure you paid £79.
If you're new to Amazon Prime and want to sign up for the first time, you can get around the price hike by signing up before September 15 and ask Amazon's customer services and asking it to waive your 30-day free trial. While this means you'll pay straight away and will lose out on the one-month free trial, you'll only pay £79 for the year, compared to £95 once your free trial would have ended. You will need to phone Prime's customer services and waive your free trial.
You can also sign up to a monthly subscription and ask Amazon to waive your 30-day free trial. However, there's less benefit in doing so as you will only save £1. If you'd like to get more news like this straight to your inbox twice a week, you can subscribe to our dedicated money newsletter here.
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