Amazon Prime just got harder to share with family, roommates

By on August 3, 2015

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Just a heads up, Amazon has changed the sharing options of the Prime membership as of August 1, 2015.  Prior to August, Amazon Prime members could share their accounts with any four people that resided in the same household. The relationship didn’t matter, but the sharing was limited to the free 2-day shipping perk. That meant roommates, friends that lived together could take advantage of the shipping perk.

As of now, Amazon is limiting sharing to two adult accounts (primary and likely spouse) in the household and up to four children (non-accounts). The main caveat to sharing between the two adults is that all credit and debit cards associated with the accounts can be viewed by the other party and copied from one account to the other. That’s perfectly fine for spouses, but it can get trickier when roommates or other adult family members want to be linked to the main account.

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FYI, this change currently isn’t retroactive. So you are splitting the cost of Amazon Prime among roommates, don’t make any changes to your account to continue the two-day shipping perk sharing. However, if you are signing up for a new account or making any changes to your current account, these restrictions will be enforced. It’s possible Amazon could also enforce these restrictions when a Prime membership is renewed.

Amazon has branded this policy shift as setting up an Amazon Household account. Access for children (up to four) doesn’t actually require an account for each child; it’s more for access to the media content libraries on Amazon Instant Video, Kindle Lending Library, etc… Those Prime perks will be shareable among the entire family as well as perks related to discounted baby items within the Amazon Mom program.

About Mike Flacy

Editor-in-Chief for The CheckOut. During my free time, I love to write about pop culture, home theater, digital photography, social media, mobile technology and cool gadgets!

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