Amazon announced today that the cost of Amazon Prime, the subscription service that includes free shipping, music, and access to Prime Video, is going up in the UK – for the first time since 2014.
The pricing changes will come into effect on September 15, 2022, which means you can still save some money before that happens (see below).
After that date, those who subscribe to the full Amazon Prime plan and pay monthly, will see a price increase of £1/month, with the price going from £7.99 to £8.99 per month.
Those who pay annually, will see their price jump up from £79 to £95/year. That’s a 20% rise, although it comes down to £7.9/month, so it’s still a better deal than the monthly subscription (but worse than the older annual price that came down to £6.5/month).
Amazon also offers a somewhat hidden and less popular standalone Prime Video subscription, that gives you access to Amazon’s streaming service without getting the full Prime membership and perks.
Currently, the standalone Prime Video plan costs £5.99/month.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to us that the price of the standalone Prime Video subscription will NOT be going up for the time being.
According to Amazon, the price hikes are due to increased inflation and operating costs. In the US, Amazon raised Prime’s prices back in February, from $119 to $139/year.
Last March, Netflix also raised its prices in the UK, less than two years after their previous price increase, with the popular standard price now costing £10.99/month. In the future, Netflix is planning to add a lower-cost tier with adverts.
Amazon Prime gives its members a host of perks, including free one-day shipping and grocery deliveries, access to Prime Music with a library of a million songs, a rotating selection of free ebooks and magazines, and of course – Prime Video.
Amazon’s streaming service, Prime Video, is a big competitor to Netflix, offering thousands of TV shows and films, including Prime Video originals such as Jack Ryan, The Boys, and the upcoming new Lord Of The Rings: The Rings of Power TV series.
Prime Video has also been getting into live sports, with the recent announcement that some of the UEFA Champions League matches will stream on Prime Video.
You can watch Prime Video on almost every streaming device (such as Roku and Fire TV), Smart TVs, tablets and smartphones – as most of them already have the Prime Video app.
Get Amazon Prime At The Old Price
If you’re not an Amazon Prime member yet, you can get a free trial for 30 days.
Since the price hike will only come into effect on September 15, if you sign up for the annual plan before that date – you can get your first year for the current price of £79.
Next year, when your subscription renews – it will be at the new, £95/year price – unless, of course, you cancel before it renews.
Remember that if you sign up for the monthly plan, you will still pay £7.99/month until September 15, but your subsequent monthly charge after the 15th will be at the new £8.99/m price point.
If you don’t want to continue your Prime subscription after the free trial is up – don’t forget to cancel before that happens.
I got the email for this this morning, I will be honest I did think while reading the article with Netflix going up, Amazon going up etc.. I don’t want them to ruin a good thing because these services are successful because they are affordable for most, they don’t over price basically however if they start to do that more and more, they will absolutely eventually fall and struggle like every company does when they continuously over price.
But I don’t think they are doing that at the moment because as mentioned in the article, everything has gone up lately and that was something I also thought when I first read about the price increase, so it’s alright really and they have to to keep their business going. I guess the big debate is how much they put it up and if they start to do it a little too much, that’s where it makes a difference I reckon.
I do like the idea of giving the option of lower cost tier services with adverts, this works best for the customers and the company and that’s truly the way to go. I personally would probably pay for ad free however some people would prefer not to and keep costs at minimal or maybe it’s just within their budget too which I feel is very important, not eliminating these services from families on any budget should be at the top of the list.
Prices go up all the time but as long as it matches people’s costs as there’s does too then it’s not a problem. Amazon Prime are one of the best!