The Surprising Reason You May Want to Cancel Amazon Prime

There are plenty of good reasons to join Amazon Prime. For just $139 a year, you can score access to unlimited free two-day shipping on orders of any amount, plus added perks like free digital content. But while $139 may not seem like a lot to pay for a Prime membership, you may want to consider canceling yours if it tends to lead you to overspend.

Is your Prime membership costing you more than you think?

As of 2022, the average Amazon Prime member was spending $1,400 a year. By contrast, non-Prime members spend just $600 a year on Amazon. And a big reason for that discrepancy may be that having a Prime membership can make it easier to make purchases on a whim.

Non-Prime members have to meet a $25 minimum to snag free shipping on their Amazon purchases. And many people don't like having to pay for shipping. As such, someone who wants a $13 item might just say "forget it" if they don't want to spend roughly twice that sum to get their box shipped for free. 

But when you have a Prime membership, you can buy a $9 or $12 or $16 item on a whim and have it shipped at no cost without really having to think about it. In the course of a year, though, those seemingly small, meaningless purchases can add up to a large amount. 

Let's say you make one impulse Amazon purchase a month at an average cost of $15. That may not seem like a large amount to be spending. But in the course of a year, you've just added $180 to your credit card tab. That's problematic if you have debt you're trying to pay off or if you're trying to build up your savings account balance. 

Also, Prime members commonly get access to deals during events like Prime Day. That, too, can lead to impulse purchases. 

You might push yourself to make more purchases

For some people, getting an Amazon Prime membership is really an easy call. But if you're worried about throwing your money away on a Prime membership, you may be inclined to specifically buy extra items from Amazon to justify your $139 a year outlay. That, too, could be costing you more money than expected.

Let's say you realize it's been three months since you've placed an order on Amazon. You might tell yourself to buy a $30 sweater so you're using your Prime membership. But if you didn't really need or want that sweater, you didn't do yourself any favors financially, even though placing that order might make you feel better about paying for Prime.

Should you cancel your Prime membership?

If you don't have a car and/or you have a busy schedule that makes it difficult to get to local stores, then a Prime membership can easily make sense -- especially if you find that you order from Amazon on a frequent basis. But make sure the items you're ordering are necessities, or items you'd be buying anyway, and not just forced or impulse purchases you don't really need.

It's easy enough to score free shipping from Amazon without a Prime membership -- just bundle your purchases to meet the $25 free shipping minimum. So if you feel that your Prime membership is leading you to spend more than you should be, you may want to consider giving it up.