Amazon Prime to Increase to $99/Year (Is It Still Worth It?)

We’ve heard the rumors. We’ve talked about it over on Facebook.

But it’s now been confirmed: Amazon has announced that for the first time in nine years, it will be increasing the price of Amazon Prime from $79 to $99 per year.

The price change will go into effect on April 17th for renewals, so if your renewal is up before the 17th, you’ll still be renewed at the current $79 rate.

New members, however, have until March 20th to sign up at the $79 rate — so if you’ve been on the fence, now would be a good time to pull that Prime trigger!

(Amazon Students will also see an increase. Currently priced at $39, Amazon Students will now be paying $49. But if you sign-up before March 20, you’ll still be able to pay the current rate of $39.)

If you’re a current Prime or Student member, you should be getting an e-mail this morning with the renewal date specific to your membership.

Current members will still receive all the benefits of Amazon Prime, including unlimited FREE Two-Day Shipping for eligible purchases, unlimited streaming with Prime Instant Video, and the ability to borrow books from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

Is Prime Still Worth It at $99

Every person’s budget considerations are different, but I’ll tell you that as a long-time Amazon Prime subscriber, I do plan to keep my Prime when it goes up to $99.

(In fact, a friend and I were just talking about this other day and agreed that our “cut-off point” would be about $50 higher.)

• I order frequently from Amazon and the free shipping that comes as  Prime benefit is still definitely worth it to me for only $1.67 more per month (that’s the $20 increase amortized over 12 months).

• I actually find that I spend less by shopping online than I do in the store. I can NEVER go in to Target and not get at least one thing that’s not on my list. Yesterday it was three gift bags that were marked down 50% off to $1.29 each. It was a great deal, but that was $3.90 that I wasn’t planning on spending. I almost never have those kind of “check out add-ins” when I shop online. In fact, that $3.90 for those gift bags was more than double what this increase in Prime will be.

• We use Amazon’s video service frequently. As in daily. It’s one of the ways we are able to “live without” cable. (Said in quotes because after many years of living cable-free, it’s really not a tircha.) If I canceled Prime, I’d probably end up getting Netflix, which would run me $96 per year. For $3 more a year, I’ll take Prime’s free two-day shipping, too, thankyouverymuch.

• I am a Kindle owner and with Amazon Prime, I get one free Kindle loaner book a month. I’ve take advantage of five of these “loans” in the last 12 months, saving me $23. Yes, $3 more than this increase.

• For music fans, there’s also a rumor that Amazon is getting ready to roll out a music streaming service like Apple’s iTunes Radio.

What about you? What are you planning to do?