6 ways to save extra money in this year's Amazon Prime Day sale

Now that we’re officially into summer, there’s one big event that we’re eagerly waiting for: Amazon Prime Day. The official date has been announced as the 16th-17th July, meaning we’re not far away from one of the biggest sales events of the year.

While Prime Day is a big day for spending money, it's always nice to save a little extra money here and there! Although buying discounted prices is seen as spending money to save money, it’s still a good way to get things you need for cheap, especially if you need to replace something that’s broken or past its best.

I’ve found seven ways you can save money on Amazon Prime Day 2024, from using a free trial to topping up your gift cards.

1. Shop the Prime Day sale on a free trial

Before you start shopping the Prime Day sale, you’ll need to have a Prime account, which is £9.99 / $14.99 a month or £95 / $139 a year. If you’re already a Prime user, you can shop the deals when they go live on the day but if you’re not, you can sign up for a free 30 day trial and shop the sale for free!

If you sign up in the first week of July or even the day before the Prime Day sale, you can shop all the deals and take advantage of Prime benefits like Prime Video, Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Reading, free delivery and more for free for a whole month. This is the standard subscription fee but it gets even better if you’re a student, as students get 6 months of Amazon Prime for free if they’re a new subscriber.

I definitely recommend doing this if you’re a new Amazon Prime subscriber but if you don’t want to be charged every month once your free trial is over, remember to close your account before you get charged.

2. Find the best deals with Alexa

If you have an Alexa device like an Echo Dot or Echo Show, you can often find exclusive discounts for Alexa users. When you ask Alexa ‘What are my Prime Day deals’, Alexa will give you an overview of the best featured deals and offers of the day and will tell you of any exclusive ones if they’re available. In general, shopping with Alexa is incredibly easy and means you don’t have to faff around with typing in your card details as Alexa takes care of everything for you.

3. Buy or Top Up an Amazon Gift Card

If you have an Amazon Gift Card that still has some money on it, you can use it on any Prime Day purchases. This is a good gift idea if you have a birthday coming up, both to ask for as a present for yourself or to give to someone else.

If you Top Up or ‘reload’ your gift card balance, you can also save money on your Amazon purchases. As part of the Amazon Reload programme, you can save £10 / $10 on your Amazon purchases by downloading or reloading a £100 / $100 or more gift card. This is a deal that was available in previous years (we haven’t seen anything about it being available this year yet) but it’s definitely worth having a look at, especially if you’re a regular Amazon customer or Prime member.

4. Use American Express Membership Rewards Points

If you’re an American Express card holder, you can Shop with Points on Amazon, meaning you can use your American Express Membership Rewards Points to pay for your purchases in the Prime Day sale. You’ll need to save your American Express card to your Amazon account and you must be enrolled in the Membership Rewards programme to be able to spend your points. 1,000 Membership Rewards points adds up to £4.50 and you can use as many or as little points as you like on each purchase. Once you’ve added everything from the Prime Day sale to your basket, you can select Shop with Points at the checkout.

5. Get a Welcome Bonus with an Amazon Credit Card

To save even more money, you can sign up for an Amazon Credit Card. There are different credit card options available for both UK and US customers but I’ll run through both for you below. The main way that Amazon Credit Cards save you money are through free gift cards and cashback. However, if you’re not a regular Amazon customer, an Amazon Credit Card probably isn’t something you should consider.

UK: Amazon Credit Cards have no upfront cost or annual fee and upon approval, you’ll receive a £20 gift card. The credit card options include the Platinum Credit Card or the Classic Credit Card. For Platinum Credit Card users, you earn points every time you shop on Amazon or where you see a Mastercard logo and every 1,000 points adds up to a £10 gift card. You also get a £500 initial credit limit instantly upon approval. The Classic Credit Card is designed to help you build up your credit rating and also gives a £500 initial credit limit instantly upon approval.

US: The Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card has no upfront costs, no annual fee and comes with a $100 Amazon gift card when you sign up. You get 5% back on most Amazon and Whole Foods purchases and 2% back at restaurants, drug stores and gas stations. Amazon also offers 10% cashback on select items occasionally which is useful for saving money on Prime Day.

6. Keep an eye out for early Prime Day deals

Finally, the best way to save money on Prime Day deals is to take advantage of early deals before the event! This is especially helpful for non-Prime users as the Daily Deals page is full of offers for both Prime and non-Prime customers. The Daily Deals section has tons of lighting deals to shop every day and specifically in the lead-up to Prime Day. Amazon also runs themed weeks where you can save money on products that fall under a specific category, like smart home, beauty, toys and more. Of course, the Prime Day sale will have the lowest prices but it can’t hurt to treat yourself to a lightning deal or two before the big day.

When is Amazon Prime Day?

The Prime Day date was announced on 16th June 2022 and will be taking place on Tuesday 12th - Wednesday 13th July.

For specific timings, it's likely the UK sales will start at 12.01am on Tuesday 12th and finish at 11.59pm on Wednesday 13th. For US shoppers, the sale is predicted to start at 12.01am PST (3.01am EST) on Tuesday 12th and finish at 11.59pm PST Wednesday 13th (2:59 am EST Thursday).

The 48-hour sales event is going to be busy so make sure to sign up for Amazon Prime to shop the sale and to make sure you get the deals you want before things sell out.