Cash hack: Save 2% at Amazon every time

If you regularly shop at Amazon then this is a handy trick to save money.

Update 26/219 – It’s been dropped down to 2%, but still represents a saving if you’re shopping there

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Contents

• How to get an extra 4% off at Amazon Kids Pass 30-day trial for £1 offers
• How to boost your saving to 4.5%
• Other gift card discounts

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Fancy getting an extra 4% off every time you shop at Amazon? Well you can – if you sign up to something called Kids Pass.

Kids Pass is a membership scheme that primarily gives discounts on days out and meals for families. It also has some decent cinema savings, which I’ve written about before. But I’ve discovered they’ve also started selling digital gift cards at a reduced rate – including Amazon.

You don’t need to have kids to sign up, though there is an upfront cost of £1. This is for a 30-day trial. Afterwards you will pay if you choose to carry on. You need to factor these costs into your savings.

But it’s possible to bulk buy your Amazon gift cards, which are valid for 10 years, during the trial if you decide the full membership isn’t for you.

How to get your 4% discount at Amazon

The listed discount rate for the Amazon e-gift card is 2%, but the discount you get is 4%. Now this could be a mistake, as when you click through the discount is labelled as 4%. Or it could be the 4% is an error. So there’s a chance the deal will revert at some point to 2% off. That’s still a decent saving, but fingers crossed the 4% is the correct discount.

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to getting the discount

Step 1: Sign up for a Kids Pass trial

You can currently get a 30-day trial for £1. If you want to keep it after that it’ll cost you £3.99 a month. The membership auto-renews, so if you don’t want to carry on paying, then cancel before the trial ends.

> Try Kids Pass for £1 for 30-days then £3.99 a month

2. Select Member Offers

Once you’ve got your membership sorted, you need to log in. You can access it on yor computer or via the Kids Pass app. Go to your dashboard and click the Member Offers tab. Then choose the box labelled Family Shop. On the app choose Online Shopping.

3. Pick your gift card

You’ll then bring up a list of available offers. Click on Amazon, then click the Buy Now box on the next page that appears.

4. Select the amount and pay

Here you’ll see the 4% discount listed, and when you choose your amount, you’ll also see the price you pay does take off 4%. In this instance, a £100 Amazon e-gift card will cost £96. Click next and you’ll be able to enter your payment details.

5. Find your e-gift card codes

You’ll be emailed your codes, but you can also find them by going into the ‘My Account” tab, and selecting “My Tickets”.

6. Add your e-codes to Amazon

Your codes are valid at Amazon for 10 years, so there’s no rush to use them. You can even give them to other people to use on their Amazon accounts.

But to be sure you don’t lose them, you can add them to your Amazon account now. Head over to the Gift card section of your account and select “redeem a gift card”. Cut and paste the code from Kids Pass into here and apply it. If you don’t want to use it on future Amazon purchases you’ll have the option to choose to pay by card instead.

How to increase the discount to around 4.5%

When you buy your gift card you can use a cashback credit card. Two options that give 0.5% are Tandem and Amazon. Both are provided by Mastercard.

So say you buy a £100 Amazon card as in the example above for £96, you’ll get 0.5% of that back, which is an extra 48p. Make sure you pay off the full amount every month so you won’t get charged any interest.

There are also lots of other ways to save at Amazon, which I regularly update on my dedicated Amazon Deals page.

Other gift card discounts

Amazon isn’t the only brand available on Kids Pass. Here’s a selection of the current gift card codes on sale and the listed discount:

• Amazon – 2%
• Clarks – 5%
• Costa – 5%
• Decathlon – 3.5%
• Evans Cycles – 4%
• FatFace – 4.5%
• Footlocker – 5%
• Gap – 5%
• Halfords – 5%
• Intu – 2.5%
• Lastminute.com – 2.5%
• Love2Shop – 2.5%
• National Trust – 4%
• New Look – 5%
• Nike – 5%
• Not on the High Street – 3.5%
• Primark – 3.5%
• Starbucks – 6%
• Tesco – 2.38% (this also comes up as 4% when you click through)
• Ticketmaster – 3.5%
• The Entertainer – 5%

Kids & family day out offers