Amazon Hikes Annual Prime Price

It jacked up the monthly fee in January
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 27, 2018 12:41 AM CDT
Amazon Hikes Annual Prime Price
Amazon Prime Now bags ready for delivery at the Amazon warehouse in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Amazon is raising the price of its annual Prime membership fee to $119 a year, up 20% from $99. New Prime members in the US will be charged the higher price starting May 11. The increase will apply to renewals of existing memberships starting on June 16. Besides free two-day shipping, Prime members get other perks, such as access to Amazon's video and music streaming services.

The online retailer recently disclosed for the first time that it had more than 100 million paid Prime members worldwide. Amazon executives said Thursday that the 20% hike is due to higher costs to maintain the program, such as shipping fees. The last time the company raised the annual fee was four years ago. Earlier this year, it increased the monthly rate to $12.99 a month from $10.99. (More Amazon Prime stories.)

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