A few weeks ago, I searched on Ebay for the term “amazon prime” and was curious what I would find. I encourage you to do the same, if you are interested.
Here is what showed up when I searched today. 9 different items available for purchase, with prices from $18-$22 that came with Amazon Prime membership through October 2014. Currently Amazon Prime costs $79 a year, so this is already a good deal.
If you click on one of the listings, the item description will be similar to this:
Amazon Prime 1 Full year of Free 2 Day Shipping Benefits Only
This auction is a guest membership to Amazon Prime (you will be joining my account). You must already have an Amazon account of your own. You will have access to the FREE 2 day shipping. I will not have access to your account, and likewise, you will not have access to my account. I will not know your password, etc. Amazon lets the main Prime Account holder invite, 4 members to share part of their Prime perks.
My 1 year Prime Membership began on October 25, 2013 and you will access to Prime’s 2 day shipping until then. The sooner, you buy, the longer you will have access to free 2 day shipping.
Instant video and Kindle Owners Lending Library will NOT be available with this guest membership
Your Membership will end on 10/25/2014 ,Membership will end on this date no matter what date you purchased these benefits from me.
Your Amazon Prime Membership will be a guest membership sponsored by my Amazon account.
Only the 2 day shipping benefits are shared with guest memberships. Instant video and Kindle Owners Lending Library will NOT be available with this guest membership.
After your payment has been received I will add you to my guest list as soon as possible.
During checkout please use the notes section on either eBay or Paypal to provide me with these details needed to set you up with free 2 day shipping1 -Your Amazon email address – the email address you use for purchasing on Amazon.
2 – Your date of birth – month and day ONLY.
3- Your name.
4- All sales final!
You will need to have my information to confirm the membership in amazon – I will provide this to you after payment has cleared and I have set you up as a guest.
Please Review Amazon Prime Terms & Conditions For Further Information
So there you have it. All you need to do is purchase this membership, provide your Amazon email address, birthday (day and month only), and your full name. Pretty simple right?
If you read the description carefully, you should understand what the seller is selling. Basically, he has an Amazon Prime membership in his Amazon account though October 25, 2014. He paid the full $79 annual fee. Amazon Prime allows you to “share” your Amazon Prime shipping benefits (no other Amazon Prime benefits included) with up to 4 “family members” for free. To prove to Amazon that you are a “family member”, you must verify each other’s name and birthday.
Instead of paying some stranger on Ebay (we are all strangers until we become friends), you can do this yourself if you have a friend or relative that has an Amazon Prime membership. Here’s how…
Log into your Amazon account and click on Manage Prime Membership under Account Settings.
From here, it shows the expiration date of your Amazon Prime membership (mine is from February 12, 2013 through February 12, 2014). At the bottom, click the Invite a Household Member link.
From here, all you have to do is enter your “family member’s” name, email address, and birthday. Does this information sound familiar (hint check above).
After you click Send an Invite, your “family member” will receive an email from Amazon. They will need to enter your name and birthday to verify that they are your “family member”. It’s really that simple. The owner of Amazon Prime can always remove you from their “family” account, so that is something to worry about if you buy a membership from someone online. All they need to do is click the Revoke button and you are no longer Amazon Prime, you are “Amazon Screwed.”
This is what it looks like from the other “family member’s” Amazon account. You only get the Amazon Prime 2 Day Shipping option. It also shows the expiration date of the Amazon Prime membership (February 12, 2014).
It is up to you, but I encourage you to use this responsibly with “family members” you have seen personally at birthday parties, over Thanksgiving dinner, and in family photographs.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
Wow Grant. Good find. Ebay sellers will try anything, ethical or not. I’m sure Amazon is none too pleased by their sales efforts. I used your info to have my wife’s account and my personal account eligible for Prime via my business Amazon account. Had no idea I could do that. Didn’t have those accounts on Prime because I didn’t want to pay the $79 again and again. I’m sure many people pay for Prime over multiple accounts unaware of this “loophole”. Thanks for your efforts. Really appreciated.
I’m glad you were able to take advantage of the family member perks. Amazon Prime is awesome, isn’t it?
All they’re trying to do is get their money back. There’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing. If they sell all four for 20 dollars each, they’ll only net $10 profit…think about it -.-
Thanks! Didn’t know about this benefit. Now my husband and I can easily coordinate our account with my elderly parents’ account to order most of the products they need. Most grateful for the info!
Thanks for posting! I signed up for Prime a few months ago but I had no idea about this.
Glad to share. Apparently this has been around for years and I only learned about it recently.
How clever to “sell” the household member Prime membership perks on eBay. I hope Amazon doesn’t stop allowing household members to share Prime membership. Now that I know the free shipping it can be shared, I will gladly pay $79 and share the free shipping with mom, sister, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law. The free shipping for 1 year could be a small Christmas present for these women who love free shipping.
Thank you for sharing Grant. Great post!
I doubt this will end anytime soon. Apparently this trick has been around for years and Amazon hasn’t changed their policy on sharing the Amazon Prime membership.
Never knew about this, great little find.
You are welcome!
Can the additional family members use their own credit cards with Amazon Prime?
Yes their account will look the same as before, but there will be a new shipping method next to their Amazon items and during checkout. Don’t forget to use my Amazon link: http://travelwithgrant.com/amazon
My concern with doing this is that the seller can cancel that person’s membership anytime. So if it’s done after when the buyer has posted a good review, they wouldn’t have any recourse. Correct?
Yes, that is true. I guess you take your chances with the seller. Then you can file a claim with PayPal for disagreement over terms. Too much hassle for both sides over $10 or so.
Thanks for your super fast response Grant! :-)
When you accept an added friend/ family member to your prime membership, do they have access to your history of purchases (gifts bought etc) or is their account completely separate? Basically, is our account private?
They cannot see anything you have purchased. They only get the Prime Shipping feature.
If I bought this membership thru EBAY, will the prime owner see any of my info?
The owner of the Prime Membership will not be able to see any of your purchases.
I noticed there is an eBay seller selling “lifetime” Amazon prime memberships for $9.99. Don’t know if this is legit or not, but thought I’d point that out!
I don’t think that is legit. It would probably last for a few weeks/months before something happened to the Amazon account.