A question about : Amazon Prime Member Fee? Charged Ј48...
What's it about?
If you've spotted a Ј47.97 charge on your bank statement or credit card bill with the words Prime Member Fee next to it and don't know where it's from, then it's likely you've inadvertently signed up for online retailer Amazon's One Month free trial of Amazon Prime.
Check back to see if you bought something from Amazon in the months prior to the charge. If at the time you ticked to get free delivery then by doing so you were taking up the free trial. If you're unsure check your past emails, you should have received reminder emails letting you know the trial was ending and how to cancel if you wished.
Why have I been charged for a trial?
Once the month's up the annual fee is Ј47.98 so that sum will have been taken from your account. To ensure you don't pay a penny you need to cancel the service.
But isn't it too late to cancel?
Provided you or any registered guests on the membership haven't made any eligible purchases then you can cancel at any time once the trial's finished and the full amount will be refunded.
To cancel, the quickest and easiest way is to go to the Prime Settings section of your Amazon account page and click the Cancel membership button. If you'd prefer to speak to someone in person to do it you can call Amazon's freephone customer service number on 0800 496 1081.
The refund should be in your account within two days.
If you're still within the trial period and want to cancel just click the do not upgrade button in your account's Prime Settings.
What exactly is Amazon Prime?
Amazon Prime is a membership programme that gives you (and your family) unlimited one-day delivery for purchases that are eligible and express delivery every day except Sundays for an annual membership fee of Ј47.97.
Yet for many it's not worthwhile. Since you get free super saver delivery when you spend over Ј5 on Amazon anyway you'd need to buy an awful lot of sub-Ј5 DVDs or books one at a time to make the Ј48 annual cost worthwhile.
Read more about using the free trial to your advantage in the Amazon Prime Loophole forum note.
Related Articles:
How to find the cheapest deals inc. Amazon Tips: Online Shopping
How to get extra money back when shopping: Top Cashback Sites
Don't miss another deal! Get MoneySavingExpert's Weekly Email
It's full of new guides, tips, & loopholes; free & spam free
Privacy Policy
View Past Emails
FAQs
Thanks to MoneySaver joanne35 for starting this discussion!
This post has been inserted to give a detailed guide
Best answers:
- hi i didnt know where to post this so thought this was as good a place as any!
i ordered a book from amazon months ago and thought nothing of it, well until i noticed 49 quid missing from my bank account a "prime member fee" that i apparently signed up to when i got the book delivered i am flamin raging i live on a minimum wage and was managing to scrape through the past couple of months i have 3 kids under 6 and am struggling for xmas and stuff as it is and since they took out this money i have 6 pound left in my account until next thurs when some money will go in!
has anyone else had any experience of this?
i have written of an email to them asking for my money back asap as i feel i was duped into this i received no correspondence from them to say they would be taking this money i feel they have been very under hand about it.
apparently if you havent used the service you are entitled to your money back so i havent so heres hoping !!
any advice would be grately appreciated.
joanne - Looks like you joined Amazon Prime Trial , after 30 days they charge Ј49 if you dont cancel.
Its not easy to sign up to it accidently you must have ticked a box somewhere , why not just ring them up rather than email they should sort you out quicker - Hi there,
The very same happened to me.
I was recredited the full amount as I hadnt ordered anything (therefore not using the service, as indicated in the help pages on amazon),
Goodluck .
lesley x - thanks for replying i rang them and the money went into my account today!!
will have to be more careful in future lol - Maybe you should thank Amazon joanne35 for sorting it out so promptly. There's a separate bit in the vent section for good service.
Amazon didn't actually do anything wrong. You signed up for a service and then either forgot to cancel/didn't read all the terms and therefore missed the fact that you needed to cancel it.
Not having a go at you BTW. I like Amazon and order a lot of stuff from them. I reckon it is a good service. - I agree that the service Amazon usually provides is pretty good. However....
I also got duped into taking out this so called Prime Member Fee. Now OK perhaps Amazon have not broken the letter of the law but surely they have broken the spirit of the law here.
I'm usually pretty savvy when it comes to buying stuff off t'internet and usually watch out for all these boxes to tick / not tick etc. I can honestly not recall seeing or knowingly signing up for this service so in my view it is a bit underhand of them.
The killer for me is that the first i see it is there is an entry on my bank statement for "Prime Member Fee ....Ј49". I hadn't a clue what it was. Despite phoning my bank they were unable to identify who the source company were - (in this case Amazon). The only way i found it was to google it and then i found these entries on this web page. Why can't they be up front and open about the transaction source?
I have since phoned Amazon and they have said they will cancel and refund.
My message to Amazon - concentrate on providing good quality goods and services to customers and forget about trying gimmicks such as Prime Member status to bolster revenues - otherwise you might find you don't have any customers!!
As for thanking Amazon - give me a break (re Takoda's slightly patronising note) - they should be thankful that i might even consider using them in future after this episode - As soon as you take the trial you can go into your account and select that it dosent renew once it ends, people forget so its not Amazons fault
- for me its a fairly transparent service
especially as they dont make you jump through hoops to cancel/prevent renewal
they may have killed this service somewhat by dropping the supersaver limit to £5 - Yeah, i still have Prime as i ve shared it with 4 of my friends , so Ј10 for a years worth of next day delivery including saturday is worth it.
- plenty must have been making use of the prime offer as amazon SD packets have definatly gotten busy since it came in
- They must be getting a special rate
- There's already a thread about Amazon Prime on Heaven sent - so I've just added a bit to it about this resolution to save someone else the bother. There are a few people who sign up, ask one question and then clear off never to be seen again.
- My Amazon stuff is either Special Delivery or City Link
- I dont know why amazon dont offer the service on a monthly basis , 6 months or 12 months for those who dont want the service all year round.
- 337 reads