Amazon Prime Day 2021: Dates, deals and how you can save extra money – CNET [CNET]

Shouldn’t they call it “Prime Days”? Because it hasn’t been just a single day for years. Prime Day 2021 will likely span at least two days, with a batch of early discounts leading up to the main event and a few days’ worth of stragglers after.

As noted above, Prime Day typically occurs in early July — but this year it’s happening in June. The date isn’t set until Amazon makes it official.

As always, anything and everything. But this is definitely the time of year to look for deep discounts on Amazon gear, including:

• Echo smart speakers and displays
• Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks
• Fire tablets
• Kindle e-readers
• Ring security devices
• Eero networking products

Granted, that stuff goes on sale all the time — a recent Mother’s Day sale revealed close-to-Prime-Day savings on a lot of these devices — but the absolute lowest prices are usually reserved for Prime Day (and Black Friday).

We also typically see better-than-usual deals on things like Instant Pots, Apple AirPods, Bose headphones and Roku streamers. Make no mistake: This might be Amazon’s party, but plenty of other stores and sellers will be getting in on the action.

This may be an Amazon event, but that won’t stop other stores from getting in on the action. We fully expect Best Buy, Kohl’s, Target, Walmart and other stores to roll out big sales of their own. Best Buy, for example, is likely to compete heavily on TV deals, while Target will likely lean into its RedCard credit card, which can save you an extra 5% on most purchases.

The best thing you can do is sign up for an Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card. It’s a no-annual-fee card, so there’s no cost to get it. Once you’re approved, you’ll immediately receive a $100 Amazon gift card, and then get 5% cash back on most Amazon purchases — including products that are on sale for Prime Day. Sometimes Amazon even bumps that cash back to 10% or even 15% on select items.

Right now, for example, you can also get 15% back on various Kasa smart home products, 10% back on the Amazfit Band 5 and more.

So far we’re not seeing any early Prime Day deals, but trust me when I say there are deals to be had all day every day. You can check my Cheapskate page for the latest and greatest, sign up for the Cheapskate newsletter (see that “Sign Me Up” box just below), get deal texts sent right to your phone and so on. 

You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter. And check out Amazon’s Daily Deals page, where the retailer markets its limited-time and semi-permanent offers. Spoiler alert: Deal quality varies widely from day to day.