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How to Get the Best Deals on Amazon Prime Day


Amazon Prime Day is a full day (plus several hours!) of special discounts on items you can purchase online or at Whole Foods.  Prime Day this year will take place on July 16, starting at 3 p.m. eastern time, and will last for 36 hours. To be eligible for most (but not all) of the deals, you have to be an Amazon Prime member, so we suggest you sign up.

Here’s what you should know to make the most out of your Amazon Prime Day celebrations.

How to Become an Amazon Prime Member

To become a Prime member, you can either choose the yearly subscription, which is $119, or the $12.99 monthly subscription—both have a 30-day trial period, during which you can cancel without paying a cent. (If you’re a student, you’ll get a six-month trial.) Subscribers of Amazon Prime are eligible for free one- or two-day shipping on most purchases (except for deliveries to Alaska and Hawaii); there are also other benefits, such as Prime Now (wherein you can get certain items delivered within two hours, at no extra charge), entertainment perks, bonuses, Alexa deals, Whole Foods benefits, photo storage, Kindle perks and free games. Overall, Prime offers streaming, shipping, shopping and reading benefits.

Download the Amazon App

The Amazon App gives its customers the opportunity to shop millions of products around the world, scan barcodes to compare prices, create wish lists, and make and track orders. When you first download the app, you’ll receive a voucher of ten dollars off your first purchase.

On Prime Day, you can benefit from five dollars off deals when you use the Amazon mobile app camera feature—product search, barcode scanner, package X-Ray and augmented reality. According to Android Central, those features are available to use within the Amazon mobile app.

Once installed, click on the Camera icon on the right side of the search bar to display the different options you can pick from.

Get Amazon Assistant for Mobile

During Prime Day, you’ll get five dollars off any order of $25 or more by downloading the Amazon Assistant browser extension, which notifies you of deals for anything you’re looking at. It also helps you compare products, add items to your list, and track deliveries.

Become an Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Cardholder

The Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card comes with some tempting bonuses: five percent cash back on Amazon purchases; two percent cash back at restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores; and one percent cash back on all other purchases.

As we approach Prime Day, these bonuses increase. For Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Cardholders, you can provide your phone number to the cashier when you check out at a Whole Foods Market on any purchase over $10 between July 11 and July 17. You will then earn a $10 Amazon credit you’ll be able to spend on Prime Day.

Additionally, you can get 10 percent back on up to $400 worth of groceries at Whole Foods Market from July 14 to July 17.

Benefit From Whole Foods Credit

From July 11 to July 17, if you’re a Prime Member and purchase an item at Whole Foods for at least $10, you’ll get a $10 credit to use on Amazon during Prime Day only. During that period of time, you’ll also be able to get discounted items at Whole Foods.

On top of that, if you’re a Prime member and using the Whole Foods delivery feature via Prime Now for the first time, you’ll receive $10 off your first purchase—which has to be $10 or more. You’ll have from July 16, 3 p.m. eastern time until July 17 to make your purchase, then receive $10 off on a future purchase.