Is Amazon Prime for Students a Good Deal? Not only will I answer that question, but I also have some killer money-saving Amazon hacks specifically for tech-savvy college students, plus an opportunity to get a 6-month Prime Student trial membership. A trial membership that’ll not only get you free 2-day shipping, but will also save you a ton of money on entertainment costs while in college. Keep reading…

What Comes With Amazon Prime Student?

When going on the Amazon site it’s not really clear what you get with “Prime Student”. So to clear things up, here’s exactly what you get with your 6-month Prime Student trial membership.

I verified this information with Amazon personally as there has been some confusion recently about exactly benefits came with your trial membership.

Essentially you get almost everything that comes with the regular Prime membership with a few important omissions.

Here are the benefits you DO get with Prime Student:

1. FREE 2-Day Shipping.
2. Prime Video.
3. Prime Reading.
4. Amazon Audible.
5. Unlimited Photo Storage.
6. Prime Early Access Deals.
7. Exclusive College Deals.
8. Current guests on your membership will also have free shipping benefits.

So, yes, because of all of the above benefits, Amazon Prime for students is a great deal. Here are the only benefits you DON’T get with Prime Student:

1. Prime Music.
2. Kindle Owner’s Lending Library.
3. You’ll no longer have access to select shopping discounts such as 20% off diapers and 15% Baby Registry completion discount.

Click Here to Sign-up for a 6-month Trial to Prime Student.

Who’s Eligible for the Prime Student 6-Month Trial?

I’ve heard lots of discussion recently of who is actually eligible for the 6-month Amazon Student program.

Can teachers join? How about high school students?

Let’s answer these questions once and for all. Here are the requirement to join.

1. You gotta have an Amazon.com account.
2. You must be a college student actively enrolled in at least one course at a college geographically located in one of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico. No high school students or teachers can participate.
3. You must be able to provide proof of enrollment upon request. Note: Rarely do they ask for proof.
4. Gotta have a valid e-mail address that contains the domain suffix .edu. But if you’re a college student without a .edu email, you’re not out of luck. Simply call Amazon at 1 (888) 280-4331 and explain the situation to them. They’ll ask you a few verification questions, and in most cases, hook you up with your 6-month Prime Student trial.
5. Once your no-cost 6-month trial ends, you’ll have the option of keeping Prime Student for $59 a year. This is 50% off the normal Amazon Prime fee. You can pay this amount annually for up to 4 years, or until graduation, whichever comes first.

It’s also worth noting that Amazon may accept or refuse your membership at their sole discretion.

Also, you can’t use your student e-mail address for more than one Prime Student membership and you can’t enroll in Prime Student more than once.

What If I Already Have an Amazon Prime Account?

I’ve also heard a lot of scuttle and confusion from those that already pay for a full Prime membership, but want to take advantage of Prime Student. I called Amazon directly and got some answers for those of you wondering how it works. Here’s what you need to know:

1. While their stated policy is to refund you for the unused portion of your Prime membership, some folks have had trouble doing this.
2. If your regular $119 annual Prime membership is within a couple weeks or months of reaching it’s renewal date, you might have a hard time getting Amazon to give you money back on that membership when you enroll in Prime Student. You may want to just wait until your Prime membership expires then start your 6-month trial to Prime Student.
3. But if you’re only a few months in, you’ll want to enroll in Prime Student and they’ll refund the unused portion of your $119.
4. They were tight lipped with the exact details, or maybe the person I talked to was very unsure of their own policy. In either case, I definitely recommend asking them to refund the unused portion of your $99 fee, no matter how many months ago you signed up for Prime.

“Prime Student” Insider Money-Saving Hacks

I chose these Amazon hacks specifically for college students as they require a little more tech-savviness to pull off. I hope they help you save.

• Learn to Hack an Amazon URL – Let’s say you’re looking for books on Amazon that are on sale. Start by doing a generic search for “books” then add “&pct-off=50-” to the end of the URL and Amazon will pull all books that are at least 50% off. Looking for books that are at least 90% off, add “&pct-off=90-” to the URL. Looking for books between 60% and 80% off, enter “&pct-off=60-80“. Example: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=books&pct-off=60-80. This will work for ANY shopping category and any percentage off. As far as I know, this is the only way to filter your search on Amazon by the percentage off.
• Turn Unwanted Visa Gift Card into Amazon Cash – Did you know that Amazon will let you buy an Amazon gift card by using an unwanted Visa gift card as your form of payment? Then you can simply spend the Amazon gift card whenever you’d like as they don’t expire. Simply log-in to “Your Account” and on your account page, under “Amazon Wallet”, click on “Add a Credit or Debit Card”. Next, just add your Visa gift card to your account like you would any debit or credit card. This hacks works great when you only have a few bucks left on a card and you know you’ll probably never spend it.
• Stop Using the “Add to Cart” Button NOW – The next time you’re tempted to click the “Add to Cart” button, first take a quick look at what other Amazon sellers are selling the item for. Turns out many of them come under the price Amazon wants you to pay. Many times it includes free shipping too.

Click Here to Sign-up for a 6-month Trial to Prime Student and get free 2-day shipping.

Ask the Reader: When you consider the free 2-day shipping aspect, is Amazon Prime for students a good deal in your eyes? How do you save money in college? Is Amazon Prime Student worth the money after your 6-month trial expires?

Happy savings.

By Kyle James

Disclaimer: Amazon did not pay me to write this article and all opinions are my own. If you do sign-up for a Amazon Student trial I do get a commission, money I use to keep this blog up and running.

Kyle James( Owner/Founder )

I started Rather-Be-Shopping.com in 2000 and have become a consumer expert and advocate writing about out-of-the-box ways to save at stores like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco to name a few. I’ve been featured on FOX News, Good Morning America, and the NY Times talking about my savings tips. (Learn more)