12 hidden benefits of your Amazon Prime membership

We reveal how to get more out of your Prime membership

Mother and daughter shopping on tablet computer
(Image credit: getty images)

With everyone counting the pennies, we all need more cost-effective ways to enjoy life - and knowing the hidden benefits of your Amazon Prime membership is one way to do this. 

As well as hosting the hottest TV shows including I’m a Virgo and The White Lotus, Prime lets you watch the latest movies fresh out of the cinema like The Little Mermaid. Plus, you will never have to worry about paying for delivery again! 

If you’re not a Prime member you can sign up for a free trial. It’s a great time to take advantage of this offer because Amazon Big Deal Days fall on 10 and 11 October, 2023. After the trial expires, membership will set you back £8.99 a month/£95 a year (or £4.49 a month/£47.49 a year if you’re a student), so it’s worth being aware of how to save money when shopping with Amazon to make sure you get the most out of your subscription.

Rhiannon Philps, personal finance expert at NerdWallet, says: “With so many different streaming services competing for our attention, and with rising prices putting extra strain on our finances, it’s a good time to evaluate whether subscriptions to platforms like Amazon Prime are worth the cost.”

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Get a 30-day free trial when you sign up to Amazon Prime. After that it’s £8.99 per month. Paying annually will work out cheaper, as monthly membership will cost you £95 a year.

What are some of the main benefits of Amazon Prime? 

One of the most obvious and well-known benefits of Amazon Prime is the super fast and free delivery. Members can enjoy free one-day and same-day delivery in some areas, making it well worth the investment if you shop on Amazon a lot and need last-minute items and can’t get to the shops. If you’re not a member, you’re looking at forking out between £2.99 and £5.99 for orders under £20 (£10 for books), and deliveries tend to take between three to five days.

Prime members can also take advantage of exclusive annual sales events, with up to 50% off big-name brands in either on Amazon Prime Day, the Prime Early Access Sale, or Black Friday sales. Make sure you read our guide on how to get the best deals on Amazon Prime Day so you shop wisely.

Goodto.com’s Money Editor Sarah Handley says: “It’s easy to overspend in a sale so plan ahead and make a list of what you want to buy and how much you’re willing to pay to avoid getting caught up in all the hype. Also, check prices with other retailers to ensure you’re paying the best price.’

But as well as access to member-exclusive pricing, having Amazon Prime also opens up a whole range of other benefits you might not be aware of. Read on to find out more about the 12 hidden benefits of Amazon Prime.

12 hidden benefits of Amazon Prime 

1. Downloading TV shows and films to watch offline

Amazon Prime members have access to Prime Video - a platform with 16,500+ movies and more than 1,960 TV shows, including exclusive Amazon Originals and Live Sports, some of which are free to subscribers and others are available to rent or buy.

You can stream them to watch on your computer, phone, or smart TV, as well as through devices such as Chromecast or a Fire TV stick. But what you might not realise is that you can also download movies and TV shows to watch online if you have a Fire tablet or the Prime Video app. 

Not only is this a great way to keep the kids entertained on long car journeys, but it’s also useful if you want to watch your favourite series on holiday and avoid roaming charges. You can even enjoy other shows and films by buying third-party channel subscriptions such as Disney, Eurosport Player, and Hayu through Prime Video, as well as other streaming entertainment channels.

Holly Andrews, managing director at KIS Finance, told Goodto, “To compare it to other services, Netflix can cost anywhere from £6.99 and £15.99 a month depending on which plan you choose, and this is just for movies and TV shows. With Amazon Prime, you are getting this, plus all of their other benefits, for £8.99.”

2. Deliveroo Plus

If you love eating out, then another brilliant hidden benefit of Amazon Prime is you get Deliveroo Plus free for a whole year. That’s right, that means unlimited free delivery on orders over £25 from your favourite restaurants and takeaways. 

For those not in the know, Deliveroo Plus is Deliveroo’s subscription plan where you pay a fee to get free delivery from participating restaurants. It normally costs £3.49 or £7.99 a month depending on which plan you choose.

“Deliveroo Plus is one of the less well-known benefits of Amazon Prime,” says Ben Faulkner, marketing director at EQ Investors. “Deliveroo normally charges a minimum of £3.49 a month for Deliveroo Plus, making this a saving of more than £40 a year.” To claim this perk, activate the offer on the Deliveroo website.

3. Prime Gaming

Your Prime membership also gives you access to free games (some of which you can keep) and free in-game content. And as part of the build-up to the next two Amazon Prime Days on 12 and 13 July, members will also be able to claim bonus classic games like Baldur’s Gate II and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed every week until July 11. 

And if that’s not enough, members can access different in-game content and perks for several popular games over the next few weeks, including Overwatch 2, Diablo IV, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, and Pokémon GO. 

And your Prime subscription comes with a free Twitch channel subscription every month. Twitch is a video-on-demand service owned by Amazon that focuses on video game live streaming. To use it, you’ll need to link your Amazon and Twitch accounts.

4. Prime Reading

Prime members can also access over a thousand ebooks, magazines and comics every month that you can read for free on any device with a Kindle app. You can keep up to ten digital books at a time and unlike a library, there are no due dates. 

And if that’s not enough of a perk, you can borrow or buy the Audible narration of many of the ebooks so you can listen to them instead. Prime members get a 30-day free trial of the Audible app too (an audiobook and podcast streaming service), with two audiobooks for you to keep.

Plus, through Amazon First Reads, members can enjoy early access to choose one Kindle book release each month for free.

5. Amazon Music Prime

Another benefit is Amazon Music which provides access to 100 million songs ad-free, the largest catalogue of ad-free podcasts and thousands of playlists and stations. “If you don’t listen to music too much then this could be a good money-saving option for you rather than paying for another service like Spotify,” says finance expert Holly Andrews. 

“But if you do listen to music a lot then there is also Amazon Music Unlimited. This will set you back £8.99 a month on top of your Prime subscription and give you access to 100 million songs.” You can also listen ad-free with unlimited skips and download for offline listening with Amazon Music Unlimited.

6. Try before you buy

Order up to six items of clothing, shoes and accessories without paying first. You then have seven days to decide what you want to keep and what you want to return. You only pay for what you keep.

7. Amazon Fresh

As a Prime member, you will also benefit from Amazon Fresh, a food delivery service. Enjoy free delivery on orders over £40, otherwise, you pay £3.99. 

You can use it to buy your whole supermarket shop, including fresh produce, household goods and specialist brands (minimum order spend £15). You can place your order and have it delivered on the same day in one to two hour delivery slots (depending on where you live and slot availability), either from Amazon Fresh or directly from a local Morrison’s store.

8. Compatibility with Alexa

Another hidden benefit of Amazon Prime is that you can shop for millions of items using voice-controlled virtual assistant Alexa, reorder things you use the most, and learn about the latest deals on Amazon. Alexa can also notify you about deliveries.

9. Prime Photos

If you're always running out of photo storage then you’ll love this hidden perk. KIS Finance’s Holly explains: “Amazon offers Prime members unlimited full-resolution photo storage plus 5GB of video storage. 

“If you’re already paying for storage, for example £7.99 a month for Dropbox Plus, then moving your photos over to Amazon means you can cut out another monthly expense and save money. And if you need more storage, then you can get an extra 100GB for videos for just £1.49 a month.”

Prime Photos also allows you to share images and videos with up to five family members using the Family Vault. You can see your files on any device, and download the Amazon Photos app to back up all your content on your computer.

10. Amazon Family

New parents will especially love this hidden benefit of Amazon Prime: simply create a profile for your child or children and enjoy up to 20% off nappy and baby food subscriptions, plus personalised product recommendations and exclusive deals. 

But to qualify for this deal, you have to subscribe to at least five items, which means you will need to get regular scheduled deliveries for each one.

11. Lightning deals

As a Prime member you can also benefit from 30-minute early access to lightning deals on Amazon - these are a range of offers and discounts on items which change on a regular basis. 

12. Amazon Household

Unlike Netflix, which has been cracking down on password sharing, Amazon is actively encouraging it by letting its Prime members share their account with friends and family. As long as they have your password, they can shop exclusive deals, get free delivery, watch Prime TV shows and movies, and play games.

How do you sign up to Amazon Prime? 

It’s really easy to sign up to Amazon Prime, but before doing that make sure you take advantage of the free 30-day trial first. If you realise you don’t use it enough to make it worth the investment, you can cancel your subscription when the month is up. 

Without cancelling, you will automatically be charged £8.99 a month to enjoy all the Prime benefits. But the good news is, you can sign up for a free trial once every 12 months so if you want to save money with Amazon at Christmas, or take advantage of Prime Day deals, you can just do that instead.

If you’re a student you can also enjoy a cheaper Prime membership at just £3.99 a month, plus you can take advantage of a six month free trial rather than 30 days.

“Given the huge number of different features and perks compared with other subscription services, Prime is definitely worth looking into if you want to save money and cut down on outgoings,” says Holly.

Rachel Wait
Personal finance expert

Mum of two, Rachel is a freelance personal finance journalist who has been writing about everything from mortgages to car insurance for over a decade. Having previously worked at Shares Magazine, where she specialised in small-cap stocks, Rachel developed a passion for consumer finance and saving money when she moved to lovemoney.com. She later spent more than 8 years as an editor at price comparison site MoneySuperMarket, often acting as spokesperson. Rachel went freelance in 2020, just as the pandemic hit, and has since written for numerous websites and national newspapers, including The Mail on Sunday, The Observer, The Sun and Forbes. She is passionate about helping families become more confident with their finances, giving them the tools they need to take control of their money and make savings. In her spare time, Rachel is a keen traveller and baker.

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