Starting last year, Amazon has continued to offer a bonus credit when trading in an old Amazon device (or related devices from other brands).

Amazon is offering the largest discount on Echo devices, specifically 25% off on the purchase of a new Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Show. In order to qualify for the discount, you have to trade-in older Echo devices.

For instance, a 1st generation Amazon Echo in good condition will get you $25 back in a digital gift card as well as a 25% off coupon on a new Echo device. You could go from 1st generation to 4th generation for roughly $50, which is half the cost of the 4th gen Echo speaker.

You could also pursue a large discount by trading in a third gen, Echo Dot for $5 (ideal for anyone that took advantage of the Echo Dot for $9 deal last year) and use that 25% off discount to get $62 off the new Echo Show 10.

Beyond 25% off on new Echo devices, Amazon is offering 20% bonus discounts for trade-ins across a barrage of categories:

• 20% off Fire TV with trade-in: LINK
• 20% off Kindle with trade-in: LINK
• 20% off Fire Tablets with trade-in: LINK
• 20% off Ring security with trade-in: LINK
• 20% off Eero Wi-fi Mesh with trade-in: LINK

Regarding trade-in value, Echo devices appear to offer some of the better trade-in values while Fire TV devices off the worst. But if you were planning on upgrading anyway, it’s going to be worth it for the additional discount.

Two things to keep in mind to save even more money:

1. The % off discount is automatically applied in your cart when you purchase the new device through midnight on November 30, 2021. That means the discount will be available during Prime Day as well as Black Friday & Cyber Monday. You may save even more money by waiting for additional sales on your new device.
2. Watch for bonus % back offers on the Amazon Prime Visa card. The base is 5% back, but Amazon likes to offer additional discounts on Amazon devices during Q4. Potentially, you could save up to another 20% by using that specific credit card during checkout.

Want to pay less for a new Amazon Echo? Get an extra 25% off with a trade-in.

While the many perks of an Amazon Prime membership are relatively well-known at this point, there are a number of Amazon services, programs and discounts that Amazon doesn’t really advertise much. We’ve collected our favorites and listed them below. Check out the list:

Amazon Move

If you are getting ready to move or have just moved, you can request a 10% off coupon for moving supplies, Amazon-approved moving services or home furnishings using the Amazon Move program. It can be reused multiple times over 90 days, has a $200 usage cap and can be stacked on Amazon’s pricing discounts. It’s only valid on products sold by Amazon, not third party vendors.

Check out Amazon Move

Amazon Free Samples

If you are interested in trying out new products without spending any money, Amazon has a service called Amazon Product Sampling. Just go to the signup page and select the product categories you are interested in. Some of the categories include pet food, men’s grooming, women’s beauty, health / wellness, baby products and office supplies.

If you like to write reviews, you can also hope for an invite to the Amazon Vine program. This is an invite-only program that connects reviewers with products bring sold on Amazon.

Check out Amazon Product Sampling

Amazon Allowance / Amazon Teen

If your kids are interested in buying things on Amazon, the retailer has a couple options. Amazon Allowance allows users to send gift card funds on a one-time, daily, weekly, every two-weeks or monthly basis; perhaps ideal for kids that get paid an allowance for chores.

Alternatively, Amazon Teen is s service that lets teens fill their cart with something they want to purchase, then sending a notification via text message to a parent to authorize a purchase. Parents will be able to verify purchase decisions as well as deny any purchase that’s too expensive. Parents will need to link their teen’s Amazon account in the site settings.

Check out Amazon Allowance /  Check out Amazon Teen

Amazon Giveaways

While definitely a veiled attempt at advertising, Amazon Giveaways is a service that offers the chance to win an item while shopping. And if you don’t win (which is likely), you will receive a coupon for said item offering a specific discount, typically between 10 and 40 percent off.

The downside is that not all the products are going to be winners and you may have to look through a ton of low quality products to find the best deals. It’s rare to find a brand name product in the Amazon Giveaway section. You also have to watch short videos on some of the giveaways before a coupon is made available to you.

Check out Amazon Giveaway

Kindle Matchbook

If you are in the habit of purchasing physical copies of books, Amazon offers the digital version of the same book for a significant discount via the Kindle Matchbook service. Assuming your previous book purchases qualify, you can buy the digital copy of the same book for just $2.99; ideal for anyone converting their physical book collection to a digital format.

Only new books purchased on Amazon will qualify for the program. Books purchased new or even from third party sellers are not included in Kindle Matchbook. The Kindle Matchbook price will appear on the purchase page for the Kindle version of the book when you visit the product page.

Check out Kindle MatchBook

Discount Amazon Prime Membership

While the 6-month free trial and $60 year price tag of Amazon Student is fairly well known, there is another low cost option for customers. If you currently have an EBT card for programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), you qualify for a $6-per-month Amazon Prime plan.

In addition, anyone with a Medicaid card qualifies. The low price is available for up to 48 months and you need to re-qualify for the inexpensive plan every 12 months. This version of Prime includes the vast majority of Prime perks, but not the Household sharing option on the full-priced plan.

Check out Low Cost Prime

Amazon Coupons

While you’ve probably seen the coupons you can click on product pages to increase your discount on an item, you may not know that all coupons active on Amazon can be found in a single place. The Amazon Coupons page has a section for Prime exclusive coupons as well as a section for the most popular coupons.

Coupons can be filtered by the product category as well as age, when the coupon expires and total percentage off. Some of the coupons are limited to a first time purchase, but others can be reused over multiple purchases; ideal for consumables.

Check out Amazon Coupons

7 Amazon Services & Discounts You May Not Have Known Existed

Are you getting frustrated at having to stay at home all the time due to coronavirus? Are you trying to cut back on your spending this month? We can help on both of those fronts. Here’s all the free trials being offered this month for streaming movies, TV shows, and music as well as video game streaming services and book subscription services.

Remember, as long as you cancel before the end date, you won’t spend a dime. Check out the full list below.

Streaming Video

Apple TV+: 7-day trial, $5-a-month after

• Access to Apple original programming like The Morning Show, Ghostwriter, Defending Jacob and the Beastie Boys Story.  (If you recently bought an Apple device, you should get a year of Apple TV+ for free.)

CBS All-Access: 1-month trial, $6 to $10-a-month after

• Access to CBS original shows like Picard, Star Trek Discovery and The Good Fight. Includes access to 10,000 episodes of CBS shows, live sports broadcasts and 24/7 news.

DC Universe: 7-day trial, $8-a-month after

• Access to DC live-action shows like Doom Patrol & Swamp Thing as well as animated shows like Young Justice and Harley Quinn.

Disney+: 7-day trial, $7-a-month after

• Access to Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars & Nat Geo content. Combo subscription option to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ for $13-a-month.

HBO Now: 7-day trial, $15-a-month after

• Access to tons of original shows as well as recently released movies. This trial can also be found within Amazon, Hulu, the Roku store, DirectTV Now and AT&T Watch TV.

Hulu: 30-day trial, $6 to $12-a-month after

• Access to tons of original shows as well as new episodes from major networks the following day.

Netflix: 30-day trial, $9 to $16-a-month after

• Access to tons of original movies / TV Shows as well as documentaries, true crime, & comedy specials.

Prime Video: 30-day trial, $10 to $13-a-month after

• Access to tons of original shows and movies. Included in Amazon Prime subscription.

Quibi: 90-day trial, $5 to $8-a-month after

• Only works on mobile devices, Original content, episodes are 10-minutes or less.

Sundance Now: 7-day trial, $5 to $7-a-month after

• Access to true crime series, original dramas and thrillers.

YouTube Premium: 1-month trial, $12-a-month after

• Offers access to original programming as well as advertisement free YouTube videos, offline viewing, background play and access to YouTube Music

Streaming Music

Amazon Music Unlimited: 3-month trial, $8-a-month after.

• 60 million song library, unlimited skips, ad free.

Amazon Music HD: 30-day trial, $13-a-month after

• 60 million songs, double the bitrate of other services, millions of songs in 10x the standard bitrate.

Apple Music: 90-day trial, $10-a-month after

• Offers access to 60 million songs, advertisement free, accessible on iOS and Android devices. Also includes local radio stations & offline listening.

Pandora Premium: 60-day trial, $10-a-month after

• 30+ million songs, ad-supported option also available for free.

Spotify Premium: 30-day-trial, $10-a-month after

• 50 million songs, ad-supported option also available for free.

YouTube Music: 30-day trial, $10-a-month after

• Listen to music on YouTube without advertisements, offline or with your smartphone screen off.

Video Games

Google Stadia Pro (PC): 2 free months, $10 a month after

• The free trial offers access to 9 games: Destiny 2, Grid, Gylt, Steamworld Dig 2, Steamworld Quest, Serious Sam, Spitlings, Stacks on Stacks and Thumper.

GeForce Now (PC): 90 day trial, $5-a-month after

• You can also get completely free access, but it’s limited to a single hour of playtime. The 90-day trial offer priority access, extended session length and RTX functionality.
• Ubisoft recently added their library of games to the service, like the Assassin’s Creed series and the Far Cry series.

PlayStation Now (PS4): 7-day trial, $5 to $10-a-month after

• Includes over 300 PS4 games as well as 500 PS3 and PS2 games.

Books / AudioBooks

Audible: 30-day trial, $15-a-month after

• Your choice of 1 audiobook + Audible originals. In addition, check out the free books for kids (like the Harry Potter books)

Kindle Unlimited: 2-month trial, new accounts only, $10-a-month after

• Offers access to over a million eBooks and thousands of audiobooks. Requires a Kindle (or the Kindle Cloud reader in a web browser).

Scribd: 30-day trial, $10-a-month after

• Includes access to books, magazines, audiobooks and documents. There’s also a NYT bundle, if you want to subscribe to the service and the newspaper.

Getting Bored? Here’s every free trial on entertainment available during April 2020

While expensive tech toys like the Nintendo Switch and PS4 Pro always get lots of attention, there are a ton of awesome tech gifts that won’t bust your budget. We have put together a list of ten of the best gadgets under $100 that will keep your holiday spending to a minimum.

Buy This Gift for Someone That Loves Star Wars

The price on the Sphero BB-8 droid has fallen considerably since the release a few years ago. You can find the version with the Force Band as low at $40. The Force Band connects via Bluetooth and lets you control the Sphero Star Wars BB-8 droid using arm/wrist gestures instead of an app. (Alt. Option: BB-9E in black)

MSRP: $130 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $40

Search Amazon for BB-8

Buy This Gift for Someone That’s an Amazon Prime Member

The 3rd gen Amazon Echo Dot (our full review) packs quite a punch for smart home voice control as well as multi-room music streaming and a whole-home intercom system. Beyond all that, call out “Alexa” and you can tell it to play music, check the weather, order items on Amazon or a huge number of smart home features assuming you have accompanying hardware.

MSRP: $50 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $24 (You can also find the 2nd gen on sale for $20)

Check Price on Amazon

Buy This Gift for an Old-School, Retro Gamer

While the Switch is a fantastic console for new Nintendo games, you can hop in a time machine to take you back to the late 80’s with the Super NES Classic system. Updated with an HDMI port, the Super NES Classic comes preloaded with 21 games built-into the system. No need for blowing on cartridges anymore! (Alt. Option: PlayStation Classic for $99)

MSRP: $80 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $80

Check Price on Amazon

Buy This Gift for Someone That’s Really into Virtual Reality

While VR headsets like the Oculus can set you back hundreds of dollars, you can get into VR inexpensively with the Samsung Gear VR. Combined with a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, this cheap headset lets you play games or watch video content in apps like Netflix and Hulu in complete privacy. 

MSRP: $100 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $20  (You can also find the 2017 version under $100, refurb for $65)

Check Price on Amazon

Buy This Gift for Someone Who Loves to Watch Netflix & Hulu

Updated for 4K televisions, the Chromecast Ultra is a $69 HDMI dongle that plugs into your HDTV and allows you to stream 4K video content from your iOS or Android smartphone or tablet as well as computers. It’s significantly faster than the basic 1080p model and supports tons of great streaming video services like Netflix, YouTube, Google Play, Hulu, Pandora, HBO GO,  Showtime Anytime, Spotify, Plex and Starz Play. (Alternative option: Fire TV 4K stick can be found for $50.)

MSRP: $69 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $49

Check Ben’s for Chromecast Deals

Buy This Gift for Someone Who Travels With Family Constantly

But, wait, more dongles! The SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick is basically a twist on the standard USB storage drive. Specifically, the device doubles as a wireless network drive compatible with Android and iOS devices. In other words, you could stream high definition video content to multiple devices in an area that doesn’t have Wi-Fi. This would be perfect for a family on a flight or an extended car ride, for instance.

MSRP: $100 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $40 for 128GB version

Check Price on Amazon

Buy This Gift for Someone Who Loves Shooting Smartphone Video

Ideal for anyone that’s trying to get a YouTube channel off the ground, the Ampridge MightyMic S shotgun microphone significantly reduces background noise when shooting in noisy areas. This type of mic is ideal for action shots, basically anything that will require quick movements with the camera. (If you are shooting interviews on the go, consider the Rode smartLav+ Lavalier  microphone.)

MSRP: $99 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $45

Check Price on Amazon

Buy This Gift for Someone Who Loves to Work Out

There’s no reason that you should be physically tethered to your mobile device by a headphone jack in 2018. Resistant to water and sweat, the Skullcandy Ink’d Bluetooth Wireless Earbuds with Mic offer 8 hours of playback on a single charge and include volume / playback controls along the sports band as well as a microphone for voice calls.

MSRP: $50 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $30

Check Price on Amazon

Buy This Gift for Someone That Isn’t Great with Wi-Fi Tech

Taking all the worry out of setting up a Wi-Fi network for the home, the Securifi Almond includes a touchscreen that walks someone through the process of setting up wireless access. Installation only takes a few minutes and all security settings are pre-configured to avoid open network issues. For anyone more familiar with home networks, it also doubles as an excellent Wi-Fi range extender if you are having trouble using Wi-Fi on the opposite side of your home. (Alt Option: TP-Link Router with Touchscreen)

MSRP: $99 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $65

Check Price on Amazon

Buy This Gift for Someone Who Loves to Read

The standard Amazon Kindle got a boost last year and is still a solid choice for a starter e-reader. It continues to receive positive praise due to the ability to read books in sunlight as well as its storage capacity. You can easily load up 1,000+ books on the device and take your entire library with you while on the go.

MSRP: $79 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $50

Check Amazon for Basic Kindle

2018 Tech Gifts: Best Gadgets Under $100

If you haven’t heard, Amazon announced a new Kindle this week for release on April 27. Adding a new model that’s more expensive than the already pricey Kindle Voyage, the Kindle Oasis is Amazon’s new top-tier model in the Kindle lineup. However, we don’t like it. Here are a few reasons why the Kindle Oasis is the worst:

1. The Price Point is Freaking Insane

Amazon wants $290 for a Oasis and that’s the version with special offers! You have to pay an additional $20 to get the model without special offers, which pushes the price point over $300. $300 for a e-reader is absolutely insane. You can purchase two Kindle Paperwhites for less than it would cost to buy a single Kindle Oasis.

And that’s just the price in America. Canadians get the privilege of spending $400 for an Oasis and Australians get to pay $449! Of course, those are just the models with Wi-Fi. If you want 3G service added into the mix for complete mobility, add another $100 onto the price.

2. Upgrades are Minimal

If you look at the chart of differences on Amazon’s site, the differences between the Paperwhite and Oasis aren’t that far off. It gets even worse when comparing the Voyage and Oasis. For example, both the Oasis and Paperwhite are 300ppi, utilize a 1440 x 1080 screen resolution, offer a 6-inch screen size and include a touchscreen. Battery life isn’t even that better, only increasing from six weeks to eight weeks when upgrading to the Oasis.

The core differences are a lighter weight, brighter screen and the buttons for changing pages. The charging cover is also an addition, but you can pick up a case for a Paperwhite for less than $10. Sure, it’s not a “charging case”. But the battery already lasts for weeks, so who really cares about a fancy case?

3. Why isn’t it Waterproof?

Waterproof devices aren’t exactly a new innovation anymore. There are tons of Android mobile devices that are waterproof, so why can’t Amazon make any of the Kindle devices waterproof? There are even services, like WaterFi, that will sell you a Kindle that have been waterproofed, at a premium price of course.

The Kindle is a device that Amazon wants you to take on vacation. They want you to take it to the beach or the pool, so it would make perfect sense for Amazon to waterproof their devices. Unfortunately, that’s simply not the case with a Oasis. You get to pay nearly $300 for a device that will stop working after you accidentally get it wet.

4. Where’s the Color?

Color e-ink is very real, but Amazon seems to be ignoring it. Color would open up the Kindle to new markets like comic books, graphic novels and children’s books. It’s likely that magazines an cookbooks would also see a jump in sales if color e-ink was an option. Instead, tablets will retain those customers since a tablet can offer a full-color experience while a Kindle cannot.

Amazon had an opportunity to provide a color option with the release of the Oasis, but decided to keep the upgrades to a minimum instead. But hey, you get to choose the color of the mandatory cover that you have to purchase with it. So I guess that’s something….

So Should I Buy It?

OF COURSE NOT. It’s a terrible deal. Get a Paperwhite instead.

We aren’t the only ones that are disappointed in the Oasis. Just take a look at the Amazon Questions and Answers on the Kindle Oasis page:

(click to enlarge)

Four reasons why the Kindle Oasis is the worst