Helen Monks Takhar

Don’t be an idiot like me: stop the auto renewals and save money

I am an idiot. This is something my recent experience with Amazon has taught me.

‘How come we have Amazon Prime?’ my husband asked from time to time, ‘I get it free,’ I told him. ‘But I don’t want to find out how exactly, you know, in case they notice and start charging me.’

May I refer you back to my original statement.

For the avoidance of doubt, one of the world’s biggest companies was not providing me with free benefits out of hidden generosity.

As an Amazon Prime member, you are entitled to things like faster deliveries, inclusive movies and Kindle books for £79 a year or £7.99 a month. I used some of the benefits, but they were very much in the ‘nice-to-have’ category, rather than an essential spend. I had, like many consumers before me, stumbled into a free trial then fallen foul of the annual automatic renewal for a service I would have never actively chosen if I’d had all my wits about me.

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