I think for many folks, an Amazon Prime membership is one of those things you signed for up a million price increases ago -- and you've kept all this time out of habit and an inflated sense of convenience.
At the very least, that's how it was for me. Until last year, anyway, when -- as part of an effort to clean up my personal finances -- I finally canceled Amazon Prime. Let me tell you, it was fascinating to see how much money I've saved (and I'm not just talking about the three-figure cost of membership).
As you try to cancel your subscription, however, Amazon will bombard you with hype about all the things you'll "lose." I'd argue that's all it is: hype. Here's what really happens when you cancel.
Included services end, extra services survive
You won't lose access to your Prime benefits right away. Your membership will last until your next billing period. For instance, if you cancel on the first of the month, but your billing period doesn't end until the 11th, you have another 10 days of access before your benefits end.
If you actually watch anything on Prime Video (arguably one of the worst streaming video services, but they have a few decent shows), now's the time to wrap it up. Any Prime video rentals you're in the middle of should be finished up, as well.
Any subscriptions you have to add-on services, like Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited, are separate from your Prime membership. As such, they'll continue so long as you continue to pay for them.
Prime Visa cardholders will earn 5% back on Amazon.com and Whole Foods purchases until the end of their memberships. Without the membership, it only earns 3% cash back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases.
Free shipping is still easy to get
You know what you probably won't lose? Free shipping.
Alright, so you won't get the automatic free Prime shipping on every little thing. (That's actually a blessing in disguise.) But you can still get most of your purchases delivered for free.
In general, you only need $25 in eligible Amazon.com items in your cart to get free shipping -- regardless of your membership status. Often, you can reach that limit with a single item. For everything else, you may just need to wait a week until you have multiple items to purchase.
Meeting the minimums hasn't been a problem in our house. If anything, the lack of habitual free shipping has helped me realize I was actually overpaying for a few things just because of my Prime membership. I now get those items from other sources (many of which happen to include free shipping).
Watch your impulse spending dwindle
And speaking of overspending, you know what else that unlimited free shipping tends to encourage? Impulse buys.
The illusion of instant gratification inherent in overnight shipping shatters upon the loss of said shipping. If it won't magically be there the next day, for free, then you find you don't actually need a lot of things.
Plus, without the Prime membership crutch, it's so much easier to break the Amazon scrolling habit. I even took the apps off of everything. While I can't back it up with data (tracking nonexistent purchases is surprisingly hard), I figure I've saved at least a few hundred bucks this year alone compared to the same period pre-cancellation.
So, when all is said and done, the result of canceling an Amazon Prime membership is you lose a few extraneous services, still get free shipping most of the time, and save a ton of money. Sounds like a pretty good deal!
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