3 Signs You’re Not Taking Advantage of Your Amazon Prime Membership

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You don’t want to let that money go to waste. 

While an Amazon Prime membership won’t necessarily break the bank, it’s also not a negligible cost. Right now, a membership costs $14.99 a month if you pay on a monthly basis, or $139 a year if you pay on a yearly basis.

If you’ve been a Prime member for a while, you may be used to seeing those charges on your credit card. But chances are, between your car payments, mortgage loan, and grocery bills, you have a lot of expenses. So you probably don’t want to land in a situation where you’re paying for a service that’s not offering you great value. And if these signs apply to you, it means you’re not taking full advantage of your Amazon Prime membership — and you may want to think about canceling it.

1. You’re taking a chance on clothing instead of trying before buying

Clothing is one of the trickiest things to buy online, namely because you don’t always know how something is going to fit until you actually try it on. Amazon’s Try Before You Buy program, however, eliminates the financial risk associated with online clothing purchases.

As a Prime member, you’re eligible to order items for a seven-day trial period. If you don’t like the items you receive, or they don’t fit well, you can simply send them back without having to pay for them.

If you’ve been shopping for clothing at other online retailers — and potentially getting stuck with shipping charges or restocking fees — then you may want to rethink that practice. After all, why get stuck paying for poorly fitting items when Amazon takes that risk out of the equation?

2. You’re paying for streaming services before checking out Prime Instant Video

As an Amazon Prime member, you get access to loads of streaming content, from movies to TV, at no added cost. So if you’re paying for other streaming services, you may be throwing your money away. And if you’re convinced you’ve seen everything worth watching on Prime Instant Video, and you’re going to continue paying for those other services, then it may be time to think about canceling your Prime membership.

3. You’re still running to the store for small purchases

When you need something right away and can’t wait a couple of days for it to arrive at your door, then you may have no choice but to hit the store on the way to or from work. But the great thing about Amazon Prime is that you get access to free two-day shipping on orders of any amount. This means that if your child needs a $3 box of crayons by the end of the week, you can order it on Amazon and avoid having to run to the store.

In fact, one benefit of joining Prime is avoiding trips to the store for small purchases — and not having to spend money on gas. But if you find that you generally end up running out every time you need to make a purchase, then there may not be much of a point of hanging onto your Prime membership.

It’s easy to justify the cost of Amazon Prime if you’re getting a lot of use from it. But if these signs apply to you, then you may want to either start better taking advantage of your membership or otherwise consider canceling it. If it’s not something that serves you well, there’s no need to spend your money on it.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Maurie Backman has positions in Amazon.com. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon.com. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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