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08 Aug 2012

The Author

Kyle Psaty

Kyle is the Editor of the DailyPerk, and is a member of the PerkStreet staff working on PR, marketing and content efforts at the Boston office. He is tasked with upholding the values of honesty and integrity and supporting the notion that PerkStreet and its customers should win together.

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Email Kyle personally at Editors@PerkStreet.com, and find him on Twitter at @KylePs80

Amazon Prime and PerkStreet: The New Peas and Carrots?
12 Comments
Amazon Prime and PerkStreet The New Peas and Carrots

Amazon Prime and PerkStreet. As orange and green as peas and carrots. And they go together just as well, if you ask our customers. So what makes Amazon Prime and PerkStreet such a fantastic combo? Let’s take a look at what some PerkStreeters are saying about the two to find out…

Last week, PerkStreet hosted a conversation over on our Facebook wall about the value of Amazon Prime. Although PerkStreet has no affiliation with Amazon Prime and doesn’t endorse it, we decided to put this blog post together to help spread the word about how much our customers seem to enjoy combining PerkStreet and Amazon Prime.

What is Amazon Prime?

“Totally worth it if you do many transactions. Makes Christmas shipping so much easier!” -Lisa

Amazon Prime is a paid service from the popular e-retailer Amazon.com®. According to Amazon, it is, “a membership program that gives you and your family unlimited fast shipping, such as FREE Two-Day shipping to street addresses in the contiguous U.S., on all eligible purchases for an annual membership fee of $79.”

But Amazon Prime also features other perks, that many of our customers have been able to reap the benefits of. Those perks include:

Some customers point out that the $79 annual fee for Amazon Prime rounds out to just $6.58 per month. Not bad if you use it, but with so many things available through Amazon Prime, that shouldn’t be tough. You just have to remember to use it!

“Amazon prime pays for itself! Completely worth it! I have used it for years, and order things like cleaning supplies (with Subscribe and Save), movies, video games, etc.” -Staesha

Amazon Prime and PerkStreet: Awesome Rewards

“I use my perks to get Amazon gift cards to fund any movie rentals.” – J.R.

All PerkStreet customers can earn up to 2% cash back on their Amazon.com purchases. (The same goes for iTunes®, Target.com, Apple.com, Walmart.com and Bestbuy.com.) It’s limited to $2,500 in spending per year, but that’s still twice as much cash back as you make on your regular non-PIN purchases. With this special bonus category, Amazon and PerkStreet can be pretty rewarding together. Just make sure Amazon is not processing your transactions as PINless debit card purchases. (Click to learn more.)

Additionally, PerkStreet customers can redeem their perks for Amazon.com gift codes. This means every time you earn rewards, you will be able to redeem them in the form of these gift codes and use the codes to buy things on Amazon.

It’s basically like getting free money you can spend at Amazon.

PerkStreet Customers Tout Amazon Instant Video

“Amazon Prime is especially nice since they just rolled out the Amazon Instant Video App for iPads. Their content is getting much better also.” – Tracy

Perhaps the most popular feature of Amazon Prime among PerkStreet customers — at least according to the conversation on Facebook — is the free Amazon Instant Video feature that comes along with a paid Amazon Prime membership. While a lot of new releases are not available for free, they typically rent for $3 to $4. That said, there are thousands of videos and shows available for free to Amazon Prime members.

They have a better selection of some kid shows like Sesame Street. With Netflix you get ‘selected episodes from seasons 35-41′ with Amazon you get full seasons.  - Tori

BONUS TIP: Amazon’s Price Check mobile app (iPhone or Android) allows you to scan the barcodes of products you’re considering buying in-store to see if they’re selling cheaper on Amazon.

Do you use Amazon and PerkStreet? Have you found it rewarding? Are you considering upgrading to Amazon Prime? What are the pros and cons? Share your thoughts below and keep the conversation going!

12 Comments
  • http://Twitter.com/KylePs80 Kyle Psaty

    Hey there. Kyle here. The author of this blog post. To kick off the conversation, my fiancee and I used Amazon Prime and PerkStreet to buy a bunch of (cheap but nice) furniture for our new apartment this fall. We made up the cost of the membership in the first few weeks in the shipping costs we saved alone! Now we’re looking for more creative ways to earn up to 2% cash back by shopping on Amazon Prime!

    -Kyle

    Kyle Psaty
    PerkStreet

  • http://www.preacherspen.org/ Chris Gallagher

    Kyle,

    I have been an Amazon Prime member for a while now. It began when we pulled the plug on cable a couple years ago. We became and NetFlix and Hulu family before adding Amazon Prime and streaming all of those from a Roku box.

    Having purchased a considerable amount from Amazon before, I find a Prime membership much better. I am able to buy a book when some recommends it and receive free shipping as a Prime member. Interestingly enough, using my perks is a great way to keep up with my book buying habit. But beyond books, we bought our children’s Christmas gifts on Amazon and enjoyed free shipping using Prime. Who needs stores anymore?Beyond that, now with 2% back with my Perkstreet card means I need to go change the card I use right now!
    Thanks.

  • Bonnie

    The thing I want to know is if there is any sort of queue with the Amazon Prime streaming?  I like to be able to “bookmark” shows that I want to watch at a later date or keep things we keep going back to together.  My favorite option at Netflix is the kids area – my son can navigate it by himself and I don’t have to worry much that he’ll watch something he shouldn’t.  When I want to watch a show, I don’t want to have to think about what I should watch and have to search for it – I want to browse my favorites and then click from there!

  • http://Twitter.com/KylePs80 Kyle Psaty

    Chris, 
    One caveat here. The Customer Experience team just reminded me that Amazon has been processing some purchases as “debit” not “credit.” Remember you need to run the card as “credit” to earn perks! Here’s how the Customer Experience team says you can make sure this is happening: 

    1)Select “Manage Payment Options” under Payment Methods
    2)Click the Edit button for the Payment Method that you would like to change.
    3)Uncheck the box that is next to “Processed as a debit card”.
    4)Select the Confirm button at the bottom of the page.

    -Kyle

    Kyle Psaty
    PerkStreet

  • http://thefamilyceoblog.com/ Julie @ The Family CEO

    I love Amazon Prime. And I appreciate this post because I needed the reminder that I could earn 2% back on Amazon purchases. I just added my PerkStreet card to my Amazon account and made sure the box next to “process as a debit card” was unchecked. Thanks.

  • Jrmcginnis1

    Bonnie – you can create a “Watch List” in Amazon Prime Videos.  When you are going thru the movies and you find one you might like to watch later, just select the movie.  You will see a list of options that include, Play now, Watch list, Play Trailor, More info.  Just select the Watch List option and it will add it to your Watch List.  On the Main Menu you will see an option called Watch List.  Just select Watch List and you can see any videos you added to your Watch List.  Just select the movie you want to watch or you can delete items from the Watch List.  Very handy to use.

  • http://www.JWesCampbell.com/ Wes Campbell

    i’m an addict to amazon…. i buy everything there… even sticky notes…

  • NDumont

    it’s great now! not so great for the hundreds of dollars I spent before I realized Amazon had automatically identified my perkstreet card as debit.  :o( missed out on a lot of perks. Not only was I not getting 2%, I wasn’t getting credit for the purchases at all. FAIL.

  • http://www.preacherspen.org/ Chris Gallagher

    Kyle,

    Thanks for the heads up. I will double check to be sure it is intact. Thanks again.

    Chris

  • Susan

    Thanks for this info. I wondered why Perks weren’t showing up for my Amazon purchases. Fixed now!
    Also, please mention the Amazon Mom and Amazon Student memberships – they are wonderful for those who qualify!

  • http://dailyperk.perkstreet.com/ PerkStreet Mary

    Hi Julie and NDumont,

    Amazon’s payment process gets a lot of people with PINless transactions. I’m glad we were able to help you continue to earn perks there!

    Mary

    Mary Mallard
    Perkstreet Financial

  • Shanda

    Quick comment about amazon. I missed out on my 2% perks from amazon because amazon was processing my Perkstreet Debit as a “pinless debit” rather than a credit. On first glance, it doesn’t look like Amazon gives you anyway to change that. However, after the frustration of being told that I would, in fact, miss out on those perks, I dug a little deeper. Under “my account” you can click on “manage my payments” . Select edit next to your perkstreet card, then uncheck the “process as debit” box. Just wish someone at Perkstreet could have told me this beforehand.

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