Amazon Prime price rise from September

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An Amazon Prime price rise was announced this morning which sees the cost of the service rise to £95 per year or £8.99 per month.

The timing from a consumer perspective couldn’t be worse as for some people an additional pound a month is just no longer in their budget. The price rise will come into effect from the 15th of September, and that’s the month that energy prices are due to skyrocket as the Energy Price cap is announced with bills rising in October, so don’t look at the price cap in terms of your budget today, look at it in terms of paying an additional 65% on top of the 54% rise that came into effect in April.

In fairness, there hasn’t been an Amazon Prime price rise since 2014, and then the increase was from £49 (price when introduced to UK in 2007) per year to £79, making it a significantly higher price rise than the one announced for this year.

Comparing the UK price to the US, when Prime was introduced the cost was $79, which rose to $99 in 2014 and again to $119 in 2018. In March 2022 this rose to the current price of $139 per year.

Amazon accompanied their announcement to Prime members with a justification which included everything from grocery delivery (not available in my area) to entertainment (I’m largely not interested with the exception of movies and Clarkson’s Farm):

We continue to focus on making Prime even more valuable for members. This is the first time we have changed the price of Prime in the UK since 2014. During this time, we have significantly increased the number of products available with unlimited, fast Prime delivery; added and expanded ultra-fast fresh grocery delivery; and added more high-quality digital entertainment, including TV, movies, music, games, and books. Prime Video in particular has increased the number of TV series and movies on offer, including Amazon Originals, as well as live sports coverage, such as the Premier League and Autumn Nations Series.

– Amazon

The problem for many will be that they simply don’t care about the frills and add ons that come with Prime – they may use some, perhaps watch the ATP Tennis or a bit of Premiership football – but what they really use Prime for is free deliveries.

I couldn’t begin to add up the number of items I buy online a year but I know that a fair proportion of them come from Amazon. Divide the number of Prime qualified orders by £95 a year and based on the number of orders in 2021, my personal delivery cost would work out at £0.41 per order and that’s a bargain. I probably buy less since Amazon Pantry shut down, but it’s still great value despite the price rise.

For those who use Amazon less frequently, you need to check how many orders you place a year to figure out what Amazon Prime is worth to you… but if you decide it’s not worth it for free deliveries that’s where the other Prime benefits come in. If for instance you’ve never had Prime Video you won’t miss it, but if you’ve become used to the perk it makes it that much harder to let go of your Prime subscription.

Amazon Prime price rise across the EU

The Amazon Prime price rise will impact the big 5 EU countries. In the UK it rises from £79 to £95, Germany from €69 to €89.30, France €49 to €69.90, and in both Italy and Spain the jump is from €36 to €49.90.

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