Amazon Student - is it worth it?

The online mail order company Amazon attracts students with an "Amazon Student" offer: Students and recently also trainees get a free, one-year premium membership and trade-in discounts. But is it really worth it?

You have these advantages with the Amazon Student Program:

• Free next day delivery
• No minimum order value for your order (except marked small items)
• Shipping by "Morning Express" costs 5 EUR per item for Amazon Student participants (instead of 13 EUR per delivery).
• As long as you are a student or trainee, you only pay 24 euros after the end of the test year instead of 49 euros (per year).
• Unlimited online storage for photos
• You can stream films and series with Amazon Instant Video for 2 euros per month (instead of 7.99).
• Flash offers will be shown 30 minutes earlier.

The disadvantages of an Amazon Student membership

• If you do not want to have a paid premium membership after the free year, you must switch off the automatic switch in your settings.
• Before the free premium status, Amazon would like to know a lot about you: What is your university email address, which university with which subject are you attending and when do you reach your degree? However, this data (apart from the university email address) is also on the matriculation certificates, which you often have to submit for discounts.
• Trainees also have to submit proof of training. Here you can use the confirmation of entry, the vocational school ID or an AzubiCard / edu.card.
• From time to time you will also receive promotional emails from Amazon at your specified email address. Incidentally, you cannot turn this off, otherwise you will also lose premium status at the same time.
• The Kindle lending library and the streaming service are only available to students and trainees in the paid program after the free year. Of course, you can also switch to the paid subscription before the end of the first year.

Conclusion: Amazon Student is worthwhile even after one year

If you put up with one or the other annoying advertising email, the free premium year is worth it: No matter whether you buy a lot or little from Amazon, if you switch off the automatic renewal in your settings, you have nothing to lose. Shoppers as well as film and series fans will still get their money's worth after one year with the 24-euro membership.