Amazon Prime Cost Goes Up

The rumors had been circulating for months regarding Amazon increasing the cost of their popular Amazon Prime service. Well, it turns out that these rumors actually contained some grains of truth. Rumors of price hikes from $20 to $40 seemed to be the common amounts, and thankfully, it’s only the lower amount…for now. That’s right – when you renew your Prime service, you will be charged $99 instead of the original and long-standing $79.

Why the increase now? According to Amazon, the price increase is due to the ever-increasing cost of fuel, the cost to stream all those television shows and videos, as well e-book lending costs. Prime subscribers are able to receive free 2-day shipping on millions of items, unlimited streaming of of TV shows and videos, and access to the Kindle lending library where they can read one book for free every month. In the past, it was a good deal. What about now?

Is Amazon Prime Still Worth It?

As someone who currently uses Prime, I can tell you with certainty that I’ve really enjoyed the 2-day shipping perk. While the shipping times weren’t all that long with the free super saver shipping, with Prime you get things so much quicker. And sometimes, you can even get it the next day if you’re lucky.

To be honest, a $20 increase doesn’t seem too unreasonable, especially with the fuel prices consistently increasing everywhere across the board. Obviously, I’d rather pay $79 than $99, but I can’t complain too much with all of the benefits I receive with Prime. There are also talks about a music service being added in the future for Prime users to enjoy.

What do you think? Will you be keeping your Prime subscription or will you be letting it expire and looking for something else?

[Image via geekwire]

SOURCE: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/13/amazon-prime-subscription-increase/