In a blatant attempt to push customers to sign up for Amazon Prime, you now need to spend £20 to get free delivery.
It wasn’t long ago that you could spend a fiver to get free delivery from Amazon. They put it up to the *usually* manageable £10. But as of 1st May you now need to spend £20!
However there are ways to still get orders for free.
The new Amazon delivery rules
You now have to spend £20 on eligible items or have £10 of books also in your order to qualify for Super Saver.
If you have Amazon Prime you get unlimited one day delivery and access to Amazon Prime Instant Video (the old Lovefilm streaming service) and a Kindle lending library. The problem is that it costs £79 a year!
That’s a lot, especially if you’re a casual shopper. So here are my three ways to save on Amazon delivery charges:
1. Take a free trial of Amazon Prime
Most people know they can have a free 30 day trial, but most don’t realise you can do this every 12 months.
As there are two of us at home we get two free months of free delivery and streaming each year.
2. Order clothes and return them for free
A bit cheeky here, but returning unwanted clothes to Amazon if really easy as long as it’s labelled “Free returns”. You obviously need to do this within the specified time and in perfect condition.
So if your order is too small, add on a shirt or jumper to bring it over £20!
I’ve not tried this but it should work. Has this worked for you?
3. Share a subscription to cut costs
Not free delivery, but definitely cheaper if you’re a regular Amazon shopper and watcher of the film and TV service, Amazon Prime Instant Video.
Amazon Prime works out at £6 a month over 13 months (remember you can start each year with a free trial). Not bad if you aren’t also paying for Netflix or NOW TV.
Even better is to share the account with friends or family. Two people going halves means you’re only paying £3 a month. The more people, the less you pay..
You’ve got to really trust the people you share with though as they’ll have access to your bank details.
You can get a discount with wordery and other websites with the following codes:
wordery.com WELCOME10 for 10% off
http://www.awesomebooks.com READ10 10% off
TIMPSON10 form 10% off at Timpsons
I’d be wary of using the ‘buy unwanted clothes’ tip. I’ve heard that if you return things gratuitously to Amazon you can have you’re account suspended. This was on a TV documentary a while back.
I’ve found a good website for books – Wordery.com
All the books I’ve looked for are the same price or cheaper than amazon & they do FREE delivery on all orders, no matter how much you spend 🙂
That’s great Sophie. Really useful to know! Andy