There are a lot of benefits to having an Amazon Prime membership during the holidays, from early access to Lightning Deals during Cyber Week, to the fast and free shipping that gets your gifts there on time.
Prime membership typically costs $14.99 per month. But did you know that if you qualify — by receiving government assistance or verifying your income — you can get all those Prime benefits at half the price? That's thanks to a program called Prime Access, where eligible people get Amazon Prime membership for a discounted rate of just $6.99 per month.
Prime Access is a discounted Prime membership for people who qualify based on income or get government assistance.
Not everyone can get Prime Access (and the discounted rate). To qualify, you must either be receiving qualifying government assistance (like SNAP or Medicaid), or your household must be within 150% of the Federal Poverty Guideline.
You can see if you qualify on the Prime Access sign-up page. Then check out what documents you need to upload. For example, you can upload an image of your EBT card if you get SNAP benefits or provide tax transcripts to prove your income.
To stay in the Prime Access program and keep that $6.99 monthly fee, you'll need to reverify every 12 months.
Even if you already have Prime, you can switch to Prime Access.
If you're already paying full price for Amazon Prime and just realized you qualify for Prime Access, good news — you can switch. Just go to the Prime Access page and upload your documentation that proves you're eligible. If you get approved for Prime Access, Amazon will adjust your membership fee.
Even though you pay a discounted rate, Prime Access comes with full benefits.
Prime Access is a discounted membership, but you'll get all the same benefits that regular Amazon Prime offers. With the holidays (as well as the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping rush) coming up, these are some of the benefits we're finding ourselves using the most:
Free and fast shipping
Amazon Prime has long been known for its free two-day shipping, but it has even faster options in certain metro areas, like same-day and next-day delivery. The holidays are busy, and if you forget to order something until the day before (or just can't fathom going out to a store with your kids at 9 p.m.), Prime gives you options. Thousands of items can be ordered to your doorstep within hours (or the next morning if you order past the cutoff time) at no additional charge. We (and Christmas) have been saved by this benefit:
Gifting: It feels like a holiday miracle when that gift you forgot to order for your kid's teacher arrives on your doorstep at 7 a.m. (even though you ordered it at 9 p.m. the night before).
Home: Surprise holiday guests? You can order bedding or an air mattress and have it arrive the same day. Just realized you don't have enough cookie sheets? Get them within hours.
Holiday decor: Realized that the holiday lights you ordered aren't enough to cover your tree, or that you didn't pick up enough wrapping paper? You don't have to go to the store.
Holiday movies and music you can stream for free
Prime Access comes with Prime Video and Amazon Music at no additional cost.
Amazon Music for Prime members lets you stream 100 million songs ad-free, including plenty of tree-decorating music (we suggest asking Alexa to play "Classic Christmas.")
Prime Video has plenty of holiday movies you can stream for no additional rental cost while you're wrapping gifts. Your 2024 options include Christmas with the Kranks, White Christmas, The Flight Before Christmas, Jingle All the Way, and more.
Grocery deals for Prime members only (plus you can use EBT to pay)
If you live in a ZIP code served by Amazon Fresh (Amazon's grocery delivery service and chain of stores), you can use your Prime Access membership to save on your order.
Amazon Fresh accepts SNAP EBT. Just add your SNAP EBT card to your account and shop eligible items.
Even better, your Prime membership unlocks special discounts just for Prime members. You can usually find up to 50% off fresh food and produce, and we recently spotted 30% off holiday essentials like canned pumpkin, gravy, cranberry sauce, and more.
Just keep in mind that Amazon will charge you fees for grocery delivery (the free Prime shipping doesn't apply to Amazon Fresh orders). However, Prime members (that's you!) get free 2-hour delivery on orders of $100 or more. So consider holding off to place your holiday grocery order until you hit $100.
10 cents off per gallon of gas at some stations
New for 2024, Amazon's giving Prime members $0.10 off per gallon of gas at participating bp, Amoco, and ampm gas stations in the U.S. If the holidays have you driving all over the place, you can get a little break on the cost of filling up buy activating the discount in your Prime account and entering your phone number at the pump.
Early access to Lightning Deals During Cyber Week
If you're trying to stretch your holiday gift budget, Lightning Deals are where it's at. You can get up to 70% (or sometimes up to 90%) off highly giftable gadgets, beauty products, and toys. Truly great Lightning Deals do sell out quickly, though, especially during the shopping rush of Cyber Monday, and that's where Prime membership comes in. Prime members get access to Lightning Deals 30 minutes before the general public and a better chance at getting discounted gifts under the tree.
Whether you already have Prime or you're signing up for the first time, you can check if you're eligible for Prime Access right here.
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