If the recent price hike on Amazon’s Prime membership service didn’t scare you away, you’re in for a sales spectacular come Prime Day. Here’s what you need to know about its return in 2022.
What is Prime Day?
Prime Day is an annual sitewide sale that Amazon puts on for its Prime members. First held in 2015 in honor of Amazon’s 20th anniversary (with mixed success), it was originally plugged as a “one-day only event filled with more deals than Black Friday, exclusively for Prime members around the globe.” In the years since, it’s morphed into a 48-hour extravaganza that’s preceded by a week or so of teaser deals. “Prime Day” is probably a misnomer at this point.
When is Prime Day 2022?
Prime Day was always a mid-July affair up until two years ago. Amazon bumped it back to October in 2020 because of the pandemic (which made for an extra-long holiday shopping season), then moved it up to June because of the Olympics in 2021.
There’s yet to be an official announcement about Prime Day 2022, but as CNET points out, we do know one thing for sure based on previous years’ dates: Amazon tends to pick Monday/Tuesday or Tuesday/Wednesday slots.
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Stay tuned to see how that pans out — we’ll update this post as soon as the dates are revealed; Amazon typically drops the news a few weeks ahead of time.
How to sign up for Amazon Prime
Anyone who hasn’t been an Amazon Prime member within the past 12 months can sign up for a free 30-day trial by following these steps:
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Visit amazon.com/prime.
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Click on the orange button that says “Start your free 30-day trial.”
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Sign in or create an Amazon account.
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Add a payment method and a billing address. (Don’t worry — you won’t be charged.)
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Click the yellow button that says “Activate your free trial.”
After your trial period ends, you’ll automatically be upgraded to a paid membership plan for $14.99 per month or $139 per year. (Pro tip: The latter saves you just over $40 annually.) Discounted rates are available for students and EBT/Medicaid recipients; click here and here, respectively, for more info.
Is Amazon Prime worth it?
Amazon Prime’s current annual rate is the result of a 17% price bump earlier this spring (from $119 to $139), which wasn’t totally unexpected — Bezos has increased it by $20 every four years since 2014. But that higher cost is undoubtedly harder to swallow after two years of a pandemic that made us ultra-reliant on deliveries — especially when Walmart’s rival service hovers at just $98 a year.
That being said, $139 is still a decent value for all of the perks a Prime membership includes if you’re someone who does most of their shopping online. Subscribers get free two-day (or faster) shipping on millions of items, plus exclusive access to the Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Gaming, and Prime Reading libraries and unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos. Amazon also offers special discounts on items to its members beyond Prime Day, including early access to time-sensitive Lightning Deals. (For more tips on how maximize all the perks of a Prime membership, click here.)
But there is a way to shop this year’s Prime Day deals without committing to a Prime membership, and that’s by scheduling your 30-day free trial around the sale. We recommend activating it a week ahead of time so you can take advantage of any early offers; just remember to cancel as soon as the sale is over to avoid getting charged.
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