Get Amazon Prime for Free This Memorial Day Weekend With This Simple Trick – CNET [CNET]

May 23, 2024 Katie Teague technology

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Want to try out Amazon Prime perks, but don’t want to pay? Try this.

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If you’ve never had an Amazon Prime membership, you’ve never experienced the perks that come with it. And if you regularly shop at Amazon, it may be beneficial to sign up for a Prime account. But if you’re not ready to commit to a subscription, you can try it without paying on Memorial Day sales this weekend — but there’s a catch.

If you want to take advantage of perks like free two-day shipping, you can get around the cost of an Amazon Prime membership by signing up for a 30-day free trial.

We’ll walk you through the process of signing up for your free 30-day Amazon Prime membership and how to cancel your subscription so you don’t end up paying a dime for it. For more, check out our guides for avoiding shipping fees and finding hidden Amazon coupons. (Also, don’t forget about Amazon’s layaway program.)

Sign up for Amazon Prime

Amazon makes it very easy to sign up for Prime on its website – just punch in your information, and you’re set. But in order to sign up for the Amazon Prime free trial, you’ll need to provide a valid credit card if you haven’t already done so.

If you’ve taken advantage of the trial before (and we hear you might get the chance for it every 12 or so months), you might need to use an email you previously hadn’t used before just to make sure you can secure the trial.

1. Head to Amazon.com and sign into or create your Amazon account.

2. Select Prime in your account menu bar.

3. Tap or click Start your 30-day free trial.

4. Make sure your credit or debit card on file is up to date (your billing address too) — if it’s not, this is the time to do it.

5. Tap or click Start your 30-day free trial.

6. That’s it! You can start shopping any time and get Prime membership benefits like expedited shipping and of course, those Memorial Day deals.

Cancel Prime membership before it renews

To avoid being charged, you’ll need to cancel your membership before the 30 days are up. Here’s how.

1. Sign in to your Amazon account at Amazon.com.

2. Go to your account menu.

3. Select Prime (computer) or Manage Prime membership (phone), then tap Manage membership.

4. Select End Membership.

5. Tap or click End My Benefits.

6. Select Continue to Cancel.

7. That’s it. Your Prime account should be canceled. You can double-check by adding an item to your card and seeing if you have the option to ship it the next day or within two days with Prime. If you can’t, you’ve successfully canceled.

Some Redditors have claimed that when they attempt to cancel their trial, Amazon will sometimes offer to extend it for an additional 30 days. Something to keep an eye out for, and if you get your trial extended, be sure to take note of the new renewal date.

For more shopping tips, check out this can’t-miss trick for shopping at Best Buy and the best sales remaining in 2024.