You Can Shop Prime Day Deals Without Paying for Amazon Prime. Here’s How
Robert Rodriguez/CNET
This story is part of Amazon Prime Day, CNET’s guide to everything you need to know and how to find the best deals.
With Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale set to bring Prime Day-level savings in the coming days, it’s an exciting time to be an Amazon Prime member. However, with everyday essentials getting more expensive, wouldn’t it be neat if you could get in on the Prime-exclusive savings without paying for Amazon’s monthly or annual subscription at all?
Though we already had one Prime Day sale in July, Amazon is kicking off the holiday shopping season on Oct. 11 with its 48-hour Prime Early Access Sale. Like its summer sale, this second Prime Day-like event offers exclusive savings for Prime subscribers, though you don’t have to be a paying subscriber to enjoy its benefits. Instead, you can get around Amazon’s membership requirement by signing up for a 30-day free trial between now and the event’s start date.
We’ll walk you through the process of signing up for your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial below to gain entry to the Prime Early Access Sale and, importantly, how to cancel your subscription so you don’t end up paying a dime. And whether you’re an avid deal hunter or holiday shopper, it’s well worth checking out our guides on?avoiding shipping fees, finding?hidden Amazon coupons and making the most of all of Prime’s perks?in order to get the most out of your money.?
Sign up for Amazon Prime from your laptop or phone
Amazon
New subscribers can sign up for a Prime free trial via Amazon’s website with just a few taps. If you haven’t saved your payment details with Amazon through another purchase, you’ll need to have your credit or debit card handy.
1. Head to Amazon.com and sign into or create your Amazon account.
2. Select Prime?in the 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. Select Continue.
6. Tap or click Start your 30-day free trial.?
7. That’s it! You can start shopping any time and get Prime membership benefits like expedited shipping and of course, those Prime Day deals.
Cancel your Prime membership before being charged
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. Tap or click on Account.
3. Select Prime (computer) or Your Prime membership (phone).
4. Select End Membership and Benefits.
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 next day or within two days with Prime. If you can’t, you’ve successfully canceled.
See at Amazon
For more Amazon shopping tips, check out our guide to scoring a discount with subscribe and save, scoring steep savings with Amazon Warehouse deals and how to get free returns on Amazon.