Photo: Cari Rubin Photography (Shutterstock)
Amazon really wants to you to buy things next week. This year’s Prime Day, which is not so much a holiday or a sale as a collective mass hysteria, will take place July 12 and 13, and the mega-retailer is not only providing the illusion it is cutting prices on thousands of products (that you probably don’t need), it’s also offering free money (in the form of credits that can only be spent on Amazon) in exchange for jumping through some digital hoops. If you are buying stuff anyway, not taking advantage of these promotions is leaving Amazon’s money on the table, and you should grab as much of their filthy lucre as possible.
Below is every Amazon credit promotion I was able to find, as well as a little on how they work, and how much credit you can get for taking advantage of ‘em. Caveat: Amazon is a big company, so I may have missed some promotions. If so, leave them in the comments so we can all benefit.
Download and order with the Amazon shopping app for the first time for $5
This probably won’t apply to you—I know it didn’t apply to me—but if you’ve somehow never installed the Amazon shopping app and ordered something via your phone before, now is the time. When you install the app for the first time and buy something, you will receive a discount of $5 on your next purchase, as long as it’s more than $10. Here are the terms and conditions.
Free money tally: $5
Complete Amazon’s Prime Stampcard for $10
Amazon’s “Prime Stampcard” promotion gives people $10 worth of Amazon credits for completing four Amazon-related tasks—it’s like a scavenger hunt, but more annoying. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, gives you until July 13 to:
You’ll have to download the free Kindle app to borrow a book (unless you own a Kindle) and sign up for Amazon Music Prime to listen to the song, but as long as you cancel the music subscription before the free week is up, it won’t cost anything.
Free money tally: $15
Take advantage of Prime Day promotions for $42 (give or take)
Along with bargains that last a short time, Amazon is offering time-sensitive free credit promotions for Prime Day. Right now, there is a total of $42 available, if you do things like buy a ticket to the movie Elvis or check out with Amazon’s Affirm on Prime Day, but look for promotions to be added and subtracted as we approach Prime day. You might as well take advantage of a potential $2 reward just for clicking this link to Amazon’s “Affirm” page, though.
Free money tally: $57
Choose no-rush shipping for $1.50 per order
When checking out after making an eligible purchase shipped via Amazon Prime, you can save $1.50 by clicking the “no rush” option. This is credit will either be applied to your current purchase or will show up as a credit in your account.
Free money tally: $58.50
Join Amazon’s shopper panel for $10 a month
If you don’t mind sharing the details of you non-Amazon purchases with Amazon, you can join the company’s Shopper Panel program and get $10 every month. Amazon says it’s “invitation only” and requires scanning and uploading 10 retail receipts a month to the company, so if you want to put in a little work to help Amazon do market research, go for it. (I suggest you confuse the system by submitting only receipts for butt-plugs and hair extensions.) If you haven’t been invited, you can download the app (iOS, Google Play) and wait to see if you’ll be selected. In the mean time, start shopping for butt plugs.
Free money tally: $68.50
Reload an Amazon gift card for $10
Eligible Amazon users can get $10 for “reloading” at least $100 onto an Amazon gift card. Amazon doesn’t make it easy (or seemingly possible) to know who is eligible before you check, but if you’re logged on to Amazon and you click this link, you’ll receive your judgement. (Sadly, I am not eligible.)
Amazon frequently offers credits for buying a gift cards (that you can send to yourself) and entering specific promotional codes, but the codes seem to only work for limited amounts of time, and which codes are current is not clear. Amazon is a mysterious and mercurial god.
Free money tally: $78.50
Discounted Prime Membership for students and others
Amazon Prime membership gives you free shipping on many Amazon items and access to Prime Video’s vast selection of movies and TV shows for $14.99 and month or $139 per year (worth it for the selection of mid 1960s Beach Party movies alone.) But if you’re an eligible student or receive EBT or other government benefits, Prime will only cost you $7.49 or $6.99, respectively. Definitely take advantage if you qualify—though we’re not including this in the tally.
Grand total of potential free Amazon credits: $78.50
There you have it: If you take advantage of each of the credit promotions here, you could have $78.50 on Amazon Prime day. But keep in mind: Amazon offers so many kinds of “free credit” promotions with limited availability windows. “invitation only” statuses, and unclear eligibility requirements, it’s difficult to know exactly how many will apply to you—so my apologies if these offers end between when this post is published and when you read it.
