1. Always watch for price drops.
Amazon prices can change several times per day. Always check to see if an item you purchased has fallen in price as Amazon will refund the difference within 7 days of when you received the order. Just chat with Amazon to get a refund.
2. Have Subscribe & Save items ship out the next day.
Amazon allows you to save 5-20% when you subscribe to an item rather than purchase it for immediate delivery.
Subscriptions normally are bundled together and sent out once a month. However you can change your monthly delivery date as often as you want, so if you need an item quickly just go here and click on “edit delivery date.”
Choose the next available date and in my experience the item will ship out a day after you place the order.
3. Delay your subscription items to maximize subscription savings.
Not in any rush to get your subscription item?
If you subscribe to 5 items Amazon will increase your subscription savings from 5% to 15% retroactively for everything in the order when the order ships out.
Just delay your order of items you don’t need right away until you have 5 items, then have them shipped out the next day.
4. Add inexpensive subscription items to maximize subscription savings.
It can be worth adding an inexpensive subscription item (Lip Gloss-$1.98, Floss Picks-$1.84 after coupon, Lip Butter-$2.21, Herbal Essences 2-in-1 Shampoo-$1.82 after coupon, Kids Strawberry Smoothie 2-in-1 Shampoo-$2.84, Burt’s Bees Honey Lip Balm-$2.84, etc, to get to 5 items. You may wind up saving more than the item costs!
5. Maximize coupon savings with multiple accounts.
Amazon has great coupon promotions on individual products that are limited to one use per account. But there’s no rule against having multiple accounts or opening an account for a spouse and/or child.
6. Save money on Amazon with Chase Ink and Freedom.
If you have a Chase Ink card you can earn 5 points per dollar by buying Amazon gift cards from an office supply store. Those points can easily be redeemed for air travel or hotel stays that make this an effective 9% rebate on your Amazon purchases.
If you have a Chase Freedom card you’ll also earn 5 points per dollar for up to $1,500 of Amazon spending between October-December. You can lock in those savings for future use by adding funds to your Amazon account here. If you also have a Chase checking account you’ll get 5.5 points per dollar in 2015.
7. Maximize your AMEX Everyday and Everyday Preferred cards with Amazon.
American Express is a DansDeals.com advertiser.
The Amex EveryDay Credit Card and The Amex EveryDay Preferred Credit Card are 2 ultra-lucrative credit cards if you are able to use the card enough times to trigger the point bonus each month.
The Everyday Preferred card earns 1.5 points per dollar everywhere, 3 points per dollar on gas and Uber, and 4.5 points per dollar on groceries after a 50% point bonus if you make 30 transactions that billing cycle.
The Everyday card earns 1.2 points per dollar everywhere and 2.4 points per dollar on groceries and Uber after a 20% point bonus if you make 20 transactions that billing cycle. It’s the only no-annual fee card that can transfer points into miles without going through another card that has an annual fee.
Sure you can wait until the end of the statement period and see how many times you should swipe your card at the parking meter.
Or you can just go to this link to directly add funds onto your Amazon account. No need to copy and paste the gift card code into your account, it just goes directly there. Don’t bother with the auto-reload option.
You can check your Amazon gift card balance here. It says it takes 5 minutes for the balance to be updated but it only seems to take 1 minute for me. Your Amazon gift card balance never expires.
8. Share Amazon Prime. Or buy Prime on the cheap.
Amazon Prime is awesome. Free 2nd day shipping, free unlimited photo storage in the cloud, early access to lightning deals, free Kindle books, free video streaming, and soon, free video streaming on JetBlue flights.
Amazon allows you to share a Prime with up to 4 other people via this link.
Defray the cost of the $99/year membership by selling off your extra slots. There’s a DDF thread where you can do just that or you can buy a slot on the cheap as well.
Note that only the primary account can stream videos and get Amazon Mom discounts.
9. Take advantage of Amazon Mom or Amazon Student.
Amazon Mom is another version of Prime that comes with 20% off diapers and 15% off when you complete a baby registry.
Amazon Student is free for 6 months and just $49/year afterward. Student accounts are not able to invite free household members.
10. Pay for Prime with a gift card.
Amazon Prime normally requires payment by credit card.
But as you already know, you can save more on Amazon by using gift cards.
The trick is to purchase a Prime Gift Subscription. You can pay for that with Amazon gift cards.
Your Prime membership will still auto-renew on your credit card instead of gift card. To avoid that just click end membership via this link. Then click “end later” so that your Prime won’t auto-renew. When your membership expires just buy yourself a Prime gift with an Amazon gift card.
11. Move gift card balances between Amazon accounts.
Have an Amazon gift card balance on one account that you want to move over to another account that has Prime?
Just purchase Prime Gift Subscriptions until you use up your entire gift card on the old account. Then apply the Prime gifts to a Prime account. As the account already has Prime you will have the option to convert the Prime gift into an Amazon account credit for the price paid for the gift.
12. Beware of excessive returns.
Amazon has been known to ban entire households if an account has returned too many items. If you do have an account with a high percentage of returns it would be wise to open a new account as once one account is banned, Amazon will close all related accounts.
13. Maximize Prime no-rush shipping.
If you have Prime but don’t need an item within 2 days then select no-rush shipping on the final checkout page.
You’ll only get 1 no-rush credit per order, so split items up into separate orders to get additional no-rush credits.
Currently Amazon is offering a $1 no-rush credit for video, music, and e-book credit for orders that cost at least $1.01. In the past Amazon has offered $1 book credit and $5.99 Prime pantry credit.
You can check your Amazon promo credit via this link. Just click “check your balance” to locate your Amazon instant video/MP3 credits.
–Amazon Digital Music Store
–Amazon Instant Video Store
–Amazon eBook Store
Unfortunately the only way to find the expiration of your credits is by looking in the original email that informs you of the credit posting.
14. Check your guaranteed delivery dates.
Amazon informs you of a guaranteed delivery date when you place an order. Delays happen though and Amazon stands behind their dates. Just chat or call Amazon in case of a missed delivery date and you’ll get an account credit or an extension of your Prime membership.
15. Order add-on items without $25+ orders.
Some items (say a 75 cent glue stick) require a $25 order even if you have Prime.
Prime members can order add-on items together with pre-order items like this and cancel the pre-order item after the add-on item ships.
16. Trade-in items for Amazon gift cards.
Amazon has a generous trade-in program. There have been several times where I’ve posted deals that are priced so low that Amazon’s trade-in program gave a gift card worth significantly more than the cost of the item.
I’ve traded back items to Amazon a year after buying them and made back nearly the entire price I paid in the first place when there was a great deal for it!
17. Take advantage of free apps.
You can download the Amazon app store here.
If this is your first ever Amazon app download, you’ll also get a $1 Amazon MP3 credit for free.
18. Price go up on an item you were watching? Ask for the old price.
Amazon prices are always fluctuating. When looking at an item that jumps up in price I’ve had luck chatting with Amazon to have the old price honored.
They have access to their price history and most reps seem willing to honor the old price if it didn’t change too long ago.
19. Let Amazon know if their competition sells an item for less.
Find an item on another website for less? Under the product details for every item sold by Amazon is the option to let them know. Officially they only match prices on TVs, but they will often adjust the price of an item to match their competition.
That’s great for me in Ohio where Amazon doesn’t charge tax while other stores do 😀
20. Prime benefits on MyHabit
Amazon Prime members get early access to flash sales on MyHabit 30 minutes before other customers.
If you enroll in MyHabit with your Amazon login via this referral link you’ll get $20 off your first $50 purchase.
21. Amazon customer service is awesome.
Not satisfied with an item? You won’t pay return shipping (return shipping is always free on clothes, shoes, jewelry, watches, luggage, TVs, and other select categories).
Ordered item out of stock and cancelled? Amazon customer service will work with you to find a similar item to replace it with or give you an account credit
I’ve yet to be disappointed by Amazon customer service when I pickup the phone. The chat agents can be a mixed bag, though asking for a chat supervisor usually does the trick if you don’t want to pick up the phone.
Learn anything new from this post? Have other tips I didn’t cover? Hit the comments!
Amazon offers free shipping with $35+ orders or get free next-day shipping on all orders with a free trial of Amazon Prime. Prime members can share benefits with a Household member here, allowing them to double up on Amazon Prime promos! A 6 month trial and discounted Prime membership is available with Amazon Student. EBT/Medicaid Cardholders can save on Prime Membership here.
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39 Comments On "21 Ways To Maximize Your Amazon Shopping"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Why are you not recommending the Amazon Credit Card with 5% back?
@Reb Yid:
When did 5% (and a hard pull for a card without a good signup bonus) become worth more than ~9%?
Please post a PSA at the end of the year right before that pre-order item becomes available.
Thanks dan for the info, great tip regarding add-on items without $25+ never new about this
You are awesome
I have received a few emails from Amazon starting my account has many returns that can result in my account being closed. If I create a new account to use with the same Credit card info, Name, billing info etc. they will prob match it up.. Dan what do you suggest I do ?
Thanks for the tips!! They won’t honor price adjustments as you wrote I tried already several times and they refused to do please advise.
I think #5 is incorrect I received a warning to my email and my orders were cancelled after I used the same coupons on a different account
How would you define “excessive returns”?
whats considered a high percent of returns?
@eli:
Use a different name and credit card?
They may not match it up until they actually need to ban the account.
@oscar:
Never had an issue getting it within 7 days of the shipment.
Did you try chat or calling?
@Dave:
Interesting, never happened to me.
Are both accounts in your name? Perhaps try it with accounts in another name?
@Returns:
@amazon shopper:
I haven’t seen a hard number, but occasional returns are just fine.
Return most items and you’re risking your account.
Hello,
We have noticed that you have returned a large number of your orders. While we expect occasional problems with orders, such large numbers of returns can suggest that customers are unaware of our return policies.
We want to call your attention to our returns policies because repeated misuse can result in the closure of your Amazon account. To learn more about our policies, search “About Our Returns Policies†in the Help section of Amazon.com.
If there is something we can do to help solve any recurring problems you are having with your orders, please reply to this email to reach an Account Specialist.
Sincerely,
Account Specialist
Amazon.com
Hi Dan, thanks for all the tips. I learned somethings today. How do you get ~9% back on Amazon? I would say that I’ll still favor the 5 UR point using Ink at office stores, but 9% sound even better.
11. Move gift card balances between Amazon accounts.
There is a simple way to move amazon gift card balances between accounts, just upload the balance to a card, (they offer it for free) and load it to the account you like!
If, as someone lucky enough to still have the old Chase Freedom Exclusives with a checking account, I add 50 cents to my Amazon balance repeatedly (thereby earning 37.98% according to your calculation that 5 UR points per dollar are worth 9%), will that spur Chase to cut me out of the program?
With regard to the add on trick and doing a pre order, Ive had issues with cancelling the pre order even after the add on item was delivered I think their catching on.
1. regarding getting promo credits for not getting delivered by their guaranteed time. or other menial reason may also cause acct closure… my friend got a warning.
2. regarding price matching, ive asked about it, and was told that it has to go thru an approval process which takes about a week or so, and even then its not a guaranteed…
This is a disturbing post. Regarding #8, the page you linked to says you can share your account with up to four “household members”. Sharing it with people outside your household is a violation of their policies and simply dishonest. The trick in #15 is outright thievery.
I used trick #15, but the account doesn’t have prime. Can I add prime now to avoid getting charged the shipping?
@Dan:
what about returning stuff to myhabit do they link that to the amazon account? or even as a stand alone site if ypu return alot?
@Honest Abe: i think its a bit harsh to call it thievery… if its avail for purchase you are not stealing…
though i agree its probably not the nicest thing
@Dan: Btw i tried the preorder video game trick on walmart.com and it works seamlessly and they ship out your items that day!
@gh: ya its simple, if you dont have prime they will charge u shipping if you have prime you are good to go!
@eli: those emails are telling you that they would rather you contact them about the product and work it out then to return all of them. i have returned and complained and got that email but never had my account threatened
@Ro:
Read the post:
6. Save money on Amazon with Chase Ink and Freedom.
If you have a Chase Ink card you can earn 5 points per dollar by buying Amazon gift cards from an office supply store. Those points can easily be redeemed for air travel or hotel stays that make this an effective 9% rebate on your Amazon purchases.
Thanks Dan I didn’t know about the free unlimited photo storage in the cloud.
@Reuvenhunt: I’m sure if.you contact them and tell them u have prime they will credit you. Amazon people don’t know the word No. if everyone was like amazon we would live in a perfect world
They don’t allow you to cancel the preorder anymore,
They told me to refuse the shipment when it comes, annoying.
Hello,
We’re writing to apologize for the number of issues you’ve experienced with your shipments. Your correspondences with us indicate you’ve required refunds on a majority of orders for a number of reasons.
Through the normal course of business, the occasional problem is inevitable. However, you seem to have had an unusually high rate of problems in your account history.
When unusual account activity such as this comes to our attention, we’ll evaluate each account on a case-by-case basis to determine if additional action is necessary, including closing the account. We’d prefer to work with you to avoid that inconvenience, as we do value your business.
If you have any questions in the future regarding your account, please write to us directly at cis@amazon.com.
Continued failure to comply with our policies may result in the removal of both your Amazon.com buying and selling privileges.
We appreciate your cooperation and understanding.
Best regards,
Account Specialist.
Amazon.com
At walmart.com you don’t need to order it with a preorderd item to get free shipping . You can just add any item to add up to $50 and cancel it a second latet, even the item you need is not shipped yet !
Is there a fee for signing up to subscribe & save?
@Sarah: No
Dan- if the other prime users I am sharing with abuse the returns and get banned, will they ban me just for sharing prime?
@hershel:
Or u can add an item for store pickup… If u don’t pick it up … It’ll eventually cancel out
Regarding tip #5, Maximize coupon savings with multiple accounts – tried it when they had the book discount promo and they cancelled my orders. They are able to link together accounts if the billing info is the same.
@Dan: I’m talking about price match sorry, I called already a few times and they refused to honor
Perfect timing. I’m an Amazon Mom, and an order I placed 2 weeks ago only arrived yesterday. They sent me an email in the interim about the delay, and I was thinking of calling to get reimbursed. But since I didn’t pay shipping costs, I didn’t think I can get anything back. After reading your post, I called today and requested the extension on my Prime membership, which was readily given. I got an extra month added because of the delay on my package. Thanks Dan!
I have prime from someone here on DDF. Can I have photo cloud storage as well?
Btw dan, you’re amazing!
Just used tip #1. The price matching to the holiday prices vs. what I paid 6 days ago. They processed the refund without any issue. Thanks a million!
Dan could you plesse explain number 12. Beware of excessive returns. I do not understand how to open a new account if the whole household is banded.