Amazon Prime Amex Offer Testing
The other day we covered a brand new and exciting Amex Offer for Amazon Prime. As part of this offer you can get 5,000 Membership Rewards points for a Prime subscription. Depending on how you value Membership Rewards, that amounts to a 50-75% discount on the $99 cost.
Following the emergence of the offer, many people looked to figure out how to maximize it beyond their own Prime account. Let’s take a look at what works and what doesn’t.
What Works
Obviously signing up for Amazon Prime or renewing your Amazon Prime subscription works to trigger the offer. This is a great way to save a ton on Amazon Prime, especially if you already are a member. If you are not, considering all of the value that Prime adds, I personally think it is a great deal.
Recent Renewal
But what if your Prime account recently renewed? That is what happened to me. My Prime account renewed on September 16, so I was less than a month in. While I was upset at first, thankfully I was able to take advantage.
First I went into my Prime account settings.
Then I clicked the dreaded link to “End Membership”.
I wasn’t sure what would happen, but after clicking through I was told I would receive a refund of about $92 if I cancelled. This was fine since I had used the service for about a month. I then cancelled, waited about 10 minutes and started my subscription back up again. Minutes later I received the, “Great News” email from Amex confirming the offer had been redeemed..
What Doesn’t Work
Amazon also has a way of gifting Prime to someone else. The kicker with this method is that if the person you gift Prime to currently has Prime then they will get the value of your gift in the form of an Amazon gift card.
So basically the theorized method was this:
- Buy a Prime gift subscription.
- Give it to yourself or a family member who is a Prime Member.
- They/You get a $99 gift card
- You get the points from the offer.
Unfortunately this DOES NOT WORK. As a test I bought a gift subscription, but unfortunately it just codes as a normal Amazon.com purchase. Here is my Prime membership purchase right below the Prime Gift purchase.
In order to trigger the offer the purchase needs to code as Prime and gift subscriptions don’t seem to.
Conclusion
The good news is you can get this deal on your Prime Membership and maybe can work out a deal with family/friends for their membership if you have multiple offers. Unfortunately the “gift hack” doesn’t work, which hurts a bit for people like me who have this offer on many cards.
Have you taken advantage of this offer? Share your experiences in the comments!
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Looks like if you have shipped 6 ore more items with prime membership, their policy is to not offer any prorated refund per my chat with customer service. But they made an exception for me because “I know you are a very genuine customer since decades, I will cancel your prime membership and Issue a full refund for you”. Thanks for the tip – will sign my wife back up with Amex offer.
Mine renewed on 9/25. I went through the process to end my membership. No refund. In fact, it directly stated that my membership would continue through 9/25/18 at which point it would end with no further charges. I called in. The CSR issued a full $108.99 refund (even though I’ve used Prime at least 5 times in the past 3 weeks) and processed the new order sequentially. I was notified of the refund by email and then of the successful Amex offer via the next email. That ROCKED!
I do believe that you can only do this once per card account. I still see the offer on my daughter’s card and my wife’s primary card, but it states that the credit is only available once per card account. I would like to give Prime to my dad, but I don’t think it will work from this account since I already dipped.
Same renewal date and outcome as David. I was going to give up but after reading his post I’ll try chatting with a CSR and roll the dice.
When u cancel , where the credit is going to?
The seecard used to pay of the Prime originally?
‘the same card’ sorry..
Thanks for this blog! I had assumed I couldn’t get this offer but alas…. Mine auto-renewed on 9/8 and after reading this blog I looked to see if I could cancel and it didn’t show me a refund so I chatted w/a CSR. She said b/c I had used it since it renewed in making some purchases (true) that I couldn’t get a refund. I asked again and told her that I just want to cancel for a refund & reinstate so as to charge it to a different credit card (also true). At first she said I couldn’t and offered bogus solutions and I asked again and she said hold on, came back and said that b/c I’ve made some orders using Prime since the renewal all she can offer me is a $92.xx refund to the card. I of course immediately accepted! I now bought Prime again w/my Amex card that had the offer and was notified I’d receive the 5k points. Basically, I paid $8-14 for 5k Amex MR (don’t know if tax is refunded or if the total refund is $92). I’d do that all day!
Shawn, was yours $92 straight?
Note that the offer is good through 3/2/18. If your membership is set to auto-renew before that date, you can update your credit card preference to use the MR card. Go to “Manage your Prime Membership” (Account&Lists -> Your Prime Membership)
shawnn / mark,
i linked TCB for a $15 amazon gc & paid with the targeted amex cc, but hasn’t or didn’t receive amex conf. for 5k MR pts; after the purchase, the description on amazon acct showing sold by amazon services…do you know if this can be double dip if using a CB site? TIA
nvm, linking CB sites didn’t work
this offer is not showing up on premier gold & everyday cards. is there a way to get it anyway?
No it is a targeted offer so it needs to show up for one of your cards.
I have it on my Everyday Preferred.
Do you think there is a way to wait a month, cancel your new subscription, get a refund for $92, keep the points and then buy it again with another card that has the offer synced?
The refund back to your card would most likely negate the offer. I wouldn’t mess with Amex too much the way they have been cracking down on things lately.
This worked for me. My membership renewed last week of Sep. I cancelled my membership on Monday night, received the refund in my CC yesterday, and just renewed today. Received the Amex congrats e-mail instantly.
What happens to my unlimited synced photo library when I cancel Prime? It says my storage counts against my regular Amazon storage and I must pick a new plan. Is that immediate? Will I be invoiced or lose the storage if I don’t sign up immediately?
Mine comes up in Feb. I clicked “End Membership” and it gave me three options (Remind me three days before renewal, end now, don’t end). It did NOT mention a refund. Do we have any datapoints that EVERYONE who cancels will get a refund or just a certain amount of time AFTER the renewal are you allowed to cancel?
No you might be too far into your membership for a refund. You can contact Amazon and ask, but for me it showed I was getting a refund before I committed to canceling. The good news is the offer is good through the end of January so you should be able to cancel right before it expires (last few days of Jan) and re-sign up to get the offer then without wasting much membership time.
You should be able to cancel anytime. Go ahead and click on end now and they’ll then tell you how much your refund will be.