Shop using my secrets to save money at Amazon.com! Via Shutterstock
Amazon.com is my go-to place for shopping online because it often has the lowest price. On top of competitive prices, here are my 13 secrets to saving money at Amazon.com.
How do you save money when shopping Amazon.com?
1. Take advantage of the freebies! The site many times releases free eBooks, music, computer games and Android apps! I share them in our daily freebie post. At times, Amazon will also offer credits for MP3s and Instant Videos, and I post those as well. While Amazon doesn’t compile all it’s freebies on one page (that would be too easy) you can often find freebies within a category by sorting by price.
2. Consider paying for Amazon Prime. For only $79 a year, Amazon Prime gives you many perks including free two-day shipping (though there’s a catch now as BB explains in her post Amazon Prime Changes for the Worse). Prime also gives you access to the Amazon lending library to borrow one eBook per month for free, and free streaming of many movies and TV shows. You might also want to split the cost by sharing the service with others in your “household.” Note, only the primary member will get the free free movies and TV shows, the additional members get the shipping perks. Bummer!
3. Become a member of Amazon Mom. You don’t have to be a mom to join! This program carries many of the same perks as Amazon Prime. You’ll pay $79 a year and get 20 percent off diapers and wipes. Plus, you’ll also get the two-day free shipping, unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows, and you’ll be able to borrow a Kindle book for free each month. It’s basically Prime with the diaper and wipes discount.
4. Sign up for Amazon Student. If you love getting student discounts, joining Amazon Student may score you more discounts. Note, you will have to prove you are a student. You’ll pay $39 per year for four years. That’s a 50% discount off Prime! The perks are similar to those of Amazon Prime except you don’t get the free streaming and only get six months of free two-day shipping on eligible purchases, but you will get $5 for each friend you refer to Amazon student! I don’t know of any other Amazon referral bonus.
5. Check out the Gold Box Deal of the Day. Here’s where you’ll find the item Amazon has heavily discount for the day — sometimes up to 75 percent! Now that’s a bargain.
6. Score the lightning deals. On the same page as the deal of the day, you’ll also find promotions that only last for four hours or until all of the coupons are used. The featured items change often so get in the habit of checking back.
7. Buy used items. Shop Amazon’s Warehouse Deals to get steep discounts on open-box and refurbished items. Amazon guarantees the items are in working order, so if you’re not completely satisfied you can return products in their original condition within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. Another way to save is to buy used from third-party sellers on Amazon.
8. Score FREE gift cards. Earn Amazon gift cards when you trade in electronics like old cell phones. Another way to score free gift cards is to use Swagbucks. All you have to do is download the Swagbucks toolbar and search the Internet as your normally do to rack up a lot of swagbucks and later redeem for free Amazon gift cards among others.
9. Buy discounted gift cards. Shop sites that sell discounted gift cards to snag Amazon gift cards for less than face value.
10. Earn cash back when you shop Amazon. You can get up to 3.0 percent cash back when you through Ebates!
11. Subscribe to get items you’re constantly ordering and save. Order through the Subscribe & Save program to save up to 15 percent off the price. You have to have more than five subscriptions to get this discount. Set up a delivery schedule (receive items as often as every month or as infrequently as every six months) for items like diapers, laundry detergent, and more. Plus, subscribe & save items come with free shipping, and you won’t be charged until the item ships.
12. Score FREE shipping all the time! Use a site like Amazon Filler Item Finder to find items that qualify for free shipping if your order falls short of the $25 minimum. Type in the amount you need to spend to hit $25 and the site spits a list of qualifying items. P
13. Become and affiliate. Unfortunately, those in California and Rhode Island can’t take advantage of this trick. But if you set up an affiliate account and shop through your own referral link, you can earn a bonus of 4.25 percent to 8.5 percent discount, depending on how many sales you make! Share it with friends or family to earn more.
14. Use the price guarantee. If a price drops on an item within 30 days of when you bought it, call customer service and as for the difference refunded. Reader Bill saved $30 on his Kindle Fire doing this! Bill, thanks for sharing this tip!
15. Price check on CamelCamelCamel.com. Reader Ryan turned me onto this frickin’ amazing site. He says: “Amazon changes prices over time and this site tracks it and will send you an alert when an item hits your target price. If it is something expensive the difference can be pretty big.” Thanks for sharing, Ryan!
16. Save for later. Use Amazon’s “save for later” button, which keeps a list of items you’re considering buying, to avoid impulse buys. Later, you can delete saved items or purchase them. There’s an added perk to using the “save for later” button, as reader Annie writes: “This is also a great way to track changes in the prices of items you are thinking of buying. When you visit your cart, Amazon gives you an alert at the top of the screen telling you if any prices increased or decreased since the last time you viewed your cart. This feature helped me realize when the price of an AC/heater unit I wanted dropped, saving me about $80.” Thanks for sharing this tip, Annie!
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
I don’t. I use Ebay. I can almost always get things cheaper, often without shipping costs, and if there is a problem Ebay has a much better policy for returns or refunds. Amazon makes you jump through hoops while waiting to get a broken or unusable item replaced.
I only use Amazon if it is cheaper than Ebay and even then I hesitate because of their return policies.
@cathy I haven’t had any bad experiences with Amazon *knock on wood* so far, but I’m interested in learning your secrets to saving money at Ebay. I’m an Ebay virgin!
I’m with Cathy — I usually find a better deal on eBay. I recently bought a laptop battery and RAM, both on eBay and both way cheaper than on Amazon.
Especially if you want a “generic” item — the laptop battery I bought was in no way, shape or form a “factory direct” model, you can save a whole lot of money.
I did the same thing with cell-phone batteries. You can get really great prices on these little things, and shipping is often “free,” no matter how much you order.
@Steve Great tips! I shy away from using eBay for some reason, but I need to get outside my comfort zone and do it. What do you look for in an eBay seller that makes you feel “safe”?
Where is the link to become an affiliate? I have not heard of that possibility.
@TrulyJulie Towards the very bottom of the Amazon.com homepage, look for a column that says “Make Money With Us.” The second link under that should be “Become an Affiliate.” If you can’t find it, Ctrl + F and search for “affiliate.” Let me know if you still can’t find the link. Good luck signing up!
Another tip when shopping at amazon.com is to use the 30 day price guarantee. I purchased a Kindle Fire for $299. A week later, it was discounted to $269. I called customer service and they put $30 back into my bank account within a day or two.
@Bill That’s a great tip! Thanks for sharing.
@Bill Sweetness. I’m going to add your tip to the post!
Bill, thanks for telling me about that! Just did the same and got $30 back. Good deal all around.
@Tom Wahoo! We’re all helping each other save money. Sounds corny, but it’s awesome!
The best Amazon money saving tip I know is to use CamelCamelCamel.com. Amazon changes prices over time and this site tracks it and will send you an alert when an item hits your target price. If it is something expensive the difference can be pretty big.
@Ryan I love the concept of CamelCamelCamel! Going to check the site out asap!!! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
I thought that Amazon’s dynamic pricing means that different people will pay different prices depending on things like their purchase and search histories, geography and other demographics. Does anybody know about this?
@Steve Rosenberg I’ve only heard whispers of this – I need to do more research. Do you have an article you can share that talks about this? Where have you heard about Amazon’s dynamic pricing?
I ‘window shop’ by picking out things I want and then putting them in my cart for later. Then I wait a bit to see if I really still want the item. (Many times I don’t, which is why I have about 40 items saved for later.) This is also a great way to track changes in the prices of items you are thinking of buying. When you visit your cart, Amazon gives you an alert at the top of the screen telling you if any prices increased or decreased since the last time you viewed your cart. This feature helped me realize when the price of an AC/heater unit I wanted dropped, saving me about $80.
@Annie What a smart way to shop Amazon! I’ve only used the “save for later” function a bit. Sounds like you use it as a shopping list…with many items getting deleted. I hadn’t before noticed the price reminder for saved items. I’ll have to add your tip to the post! Thanks for sharing!
At http://www.pricewombat.com, you can have the website send you either an email or a text when an item you want drops below a certain price. This way, you can receive an email when the price drops to a price you like, and then you can purchase the object.
I looked into joining Prime and I was intrigued by the idea of borrowing Kindle books for free, as I’m a pretty voracious reader. However, I don’t own a Kindle (I read Kindle books using the app on my iPad), and it turns out that that feature is only available for owners of a real Kindle so it would be no use to me.
A note to my previous comment regarding amazon.com 30 day price guarantee: I couldn’t find an official price guarantee policy anywhere, but if/when they give a refund for the difference, they call it a “goodwill refund”. Also, it is important to note that they don’t offer a price match for competitors that I know of , but they will give you the credit for items that they sell directly that go down in price. (3rd party affiliates probably don’t qualify).
When it comes to pre-ordering items such as DVDs, they do advertise that if the price drops, they will give you the lower price. I hope this helps.
@Bill Thanks for the clarification. From your comment, I gather that the 30 day price guarantee is NOT a hard and fast rule, and there are exceptions, but that if a customer takes the time to call and ask for a refund, they are likely to get it.
@Bargain Babe Thanks for posting my tip. Your understanding of my last comment is 100% correct. It would be great to get other readers to share their experiences with amazon to see how accommodating they are when they see a price drop like I did. The amazing thing was that I didn’t has to escalate my concern to a supervisor. The first person I spoke with was able to help me. Isn’t that amazing these days?
Amazon student has two different options. You can get the free version which comes with just shipping benefits, or you can pay $39 and get both shipping benefits and prime streaming videos.
@Sandra Thanks for clarifying this!
I hope that my tip helps. There’s a Facebook group called Amazon Garage Sale (https://www.facebook.com/groups/amazongaragesale/) that posts links to deals on Amazon, but they also will look for items for you that you are planning to buy and provide you with links to the discounts on Amazon.
We bought a rolling kitchen island from a link posted in the group and saved a ton of money. I came here first, read this, then I did some research on Facebook and stumbled on to that group. It’s public, I didn’t care to join at first (I am now, and you do have to be approved to join the group), and I did like getting the discount on exactly what I was looking for! We saved $40 from the lowest price that I could find when I searched on Amazon on my own.
The Twitter handle for the same group is @NumberOneAmazon if you are more accustomed to using Twitter.
I hope this tip helps others. Also, @Bill – I also have been given a credit by Amazon when the price fluctuates. That does work – you just have to let them know!
Awesome post.
Here’s an actual example of what you can save during the “Lightning Deals”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQDeB3Dn6Yc
Thanks for all the good ideas! I always use a price comparison site like http://1cheaper.com just before I buy to ensure I am getting the best deal.
You can also save on Amazon by shopping at http://Purse.io. I saved 20% just last week on a fitbit. 🙂
I’ve never heard of Purse.io before. I will have to check it out. Thanks for the tip!