Use Amazon Mom, Amazon Student, and Amazon Subscribe & Save to Save Money on Every Amazon Purchase

You may already be familiar with Amazon Prime, the free 2-day shipping, unlimited online video streaming, and Kindle ebook reading program from Amazon.

But have you heard of Amazon Mom or Amazon Student?  Probably not…

Amazon Mom (actually it says you can be a mom, a dad, a grandparent, or a caretaker, but that isn’t as catchy as “Amazon Mom”).  You get the same benefits of Amazon Prime as well as 20% off diapers and wipes (for your baby) through the Subscribe and Save option (more details below) and another 20% off other family essential subscriptions.  Not too bad, right?

Amazon Student is very similar to Amazon Mom but is targeted toward college students.  The sign up bonus for Amazon Student is pretty cool since you get 6 months of free 2 day shipping, lots of discounts on stuff students usually buy, and then a half priced membership the last 6 months of the year.  You can cancel your free trial anytime before your 6 month trial period ends.

Here are more details of the Amazon Student program:

Amazon also has a third program called Subscribe & Save which does not cost anything (it comes included with the above mentioned programs).

Subscribe & Save is simple to understand.  Most people buy the same stuff every month, every 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, etc.  What if you could save up to 15% on the stuff you buy repetitively?  Now you can, with Amazon’s Subscribe & Save.

Even if you do not want to reorder the same thing every few months, you can use Subscribe & Save to your advantage.  Let me show you how.  I needed to order some more mouthwash and they had 3 bottles available for $21.45, which would be 3 / $21.45 = $7.15 a bottle, cheaper than my local grocery store, so I am already ahead.  If you look on the right side, there is a Subscribe & Save option for $20.38, which would bring my cost per bottle down to 3 / $20.38 = $6.79.

If you go over to the delivery options, you can chose how often you want your order to be billed and shipped to you.  I selected 6 months, since I think it takes about 2 months to go through each bottle of mouthwash.

At the checkout screen, it says my first order will be delivered on September 3 and shipped again 6 months later.

After creating my subscription, I can view the subscription details, change the delivery schedule, skip next delivery, and request a shipment right away.

If you don’t want to continue your subscription, you can cancel anytime and you will not be charged a penalty for the difference between the Subscribe & Save price and the regular Amazon Prime price.  Do you see what I mean…?

You can go to the Amazon Mom sign up link and Amazon Student sign up link.  I will earn a $10 Amazon Gift Card for everyone who signs up for either program.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

6 Things to do Before Closing a Credit Card

We all love getting shiny new credit cards and receiving our huge sign up bonuses, but that feeling and those points don’t last forever.  Eventually, you will have to pay an annual fee or you might contemplate closing the credit card.  Here are 6 things to do before closing your credit card, in order of importance.

1 – Pay off your entire credit card balance.  The credit card company will not be able to do anything with your account if you still owe them money.  Therefore, the first thing you have to do is pay off your entire credit card balance.

2 – Transfer or redeem your credit card reward points.  If your credit card earns Chase Ultimate Reward Points or American Express Membership Reward Points (and you do not have another points earning credit card), you will lose the remaining balance of your points if the points are not transferred or redeemed.  However, Citi ThankYou Points can be spent with or without a ThankYou credit card.  Frequent flyer miles are yours to keep, regardless if you have the airline credit card.  See option 4 below for downgrade instructions.

3 – Ask for a retention bonus.  If you are closing your credit card because the annual fee is too high, call the credit card company and tell them the annual fee is too high.  You might be offered a retention bonus to keep the credit card open.  You might get a statement credit to offset the annual fee, bonus points for keeping the card, or a spending challenge where you have to spend $x in x months to get the annual fee waived/reimbursed.   The worst they can say is no retention bonus for you (they probably won’t use those exact same words, though).

4 – Downgrade to no annual fee.  Before closing your card, ask if there is a card you can downgrade to that has no annual fee.  Most credit card companies have less popular credit cards that earn less points and have less perks, but they most likely have no annual fee.  I recently downgraded my Chase Sapphire Preferred to the Chase Sapphire (Basic) card.  Read about my adventure here.

5 – Move your credit line around.  Your credit utilization ratio is one of the factors that affects your credit score.  If you have 2 cards each with a $5,000 credit line, your total available credit is $10,000.  If you normally spend $1,000 on each card, or $2,000 total, each month, your current credit utilization ratio is $2,000 / $10,000 = 20%.  If you close 1 card and put the full $2,000 on 1 card, your credit utilization ratio increases to $2,000 / $5,000 = 40%.  You might not think that is important, but to your credit card company, you look like a higher risk, which will lower your credit score.  To learn more about your credit score, please read Credit Karma & Credit Sesame.  Before closing your credit card, ask for your credit line to be moved over to another credit card you have with the same credit card company.

6 – Apply for another credit card.  Most credit card companies, especially Chase, Citibank, and should apply for another credit card from the same bank.  If you get approved, that is great.  You can call the credit card company, tell them to transfer that credit line over to your newly approved credit card, and to close your first card.  If you did not get approved for the new credit card, you can call the reconsideration department at the credit card company and tell them to move the entire credit line from your current credit card to your recently applied credit card, thereby closing your old credit card and opening a new credit card.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.