At a time when the price of everything is going up it’s a little galling that Amazon Prime is getting a price hike across Europe. And it’s not a small one either, with prices jumping up by 43% a year.
Amazon alerted customers to this in an email, noting that U.K. prices will rise from £7.99 to £8.99 a month, and £79 to £95 for yearly payments. The new prices will kick in on September 15. Similar price jumps are taking pace across European nations, with monthly subscription fees increasing by €1.
No reason was given for this jump in subscription price, though with the likes of Netflix and others upping their subscription fees, and Amazon Prime got a price jump in the U.S. earlier this year, this price hike seemed inevitable. It’s also worth noting that this is the first Amazon Prime price jump since 2014 for the U.K. so it’s arguably been a long time coming.
An Amazon Prime subscription does offer a fair bit for its price, including access to the rather solid Amazon Prime Video streaming service, next-day deliveries, free games, access to Amazon Music and Prime Reading, and the ability to participate in Amazon Lightning deal sales. In short, for £2 more a month than Netflix's basic subscription fee, Amazon Prime offers a heck of a lot more.
But a price hike is a price hike, and unfortunately it’s not going to be one you can avoid. In the U.S. before the price rise came into effect you were able to buy a Prime membership as a gift for the lower price and then gift it to yourself. Sadly, this option isn't available in the U.K. or Europe, so you may need to swallow the extra cost Amazon will suck up.
Nevertheless, with what Amazon Prime offers it’s arguably better value than a lot of other subscription services, especially those like Spotify that simply other music streaming. So there maybe other ways to cut costs before you decide to cancel Amazon Prime.
