Amazon Prime, Student, and Mom

Amazon Prime, Student, and Mom Amazon has a couple of specialized programs namely Amazon Prime,Amazon Student, and Amazon Mom. So how does Amazon Prime differ from Amazon Student and Amazon Mom? First, it's important to note that both Amazon Student and Amazon Mom have free and paid versions. The free versions basically give you respective access to "student-specific" or "mom-specific" benefits. Basically, these "benefits" translate to little more than targeted promotions.

The paid accounts of Amazon Student and Amazon Mom is what really gives you tangible benefits. Think of these paid accounts as Amazon Prime with "extras." 

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime cost $79/yr and offers the following benefits:

• free two-day shipping, 
• unlimited video streaming, 
• access to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library
• share two-day shipping benefit with up to 4 people (note that the people you share with only get the two-day shipping; they do NOT get access to either the unlimited video streaming or the Kindle Owners' Lending Library) 

These are great benefits for $79/yr, especially the unlimited video streaming part. Keep in mind that $79/yr works out to less than $7/mth which is cheaper than Netflix's unlimited streaming plan of $7.99/mth.

Amazon Student

There are really two types of Amazon Student accounts- free and paid. the free Amazon Student account just offers you student-specific discounts. The paid Amazon Student account is basically a cheaper version of Amazon Prime with the added benefit of "student specific" discounts. This paid Amazon Student account costs $39/yr and has all the benefits of Prime except that you can't share your two-day shipping with anyone else. So a paid Amazon Student account gives you the following:

• two-day shipping, 
• unlimited streaming video, 
• access to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library 
• student-specific discounts 

All new Amazon Student sign-ups begin with a 6-month free trial that gives you two-day shipping and student-specific discounts. At the end of the six-month period, you'll be billed $39 to continue these benefits. During this trial period, you do not get the unlimited video streaming or the lending library features; if you decide you want these features before the six months is up, you can always start paying the $39.

The reverse is also true, if you're paying for Amazon Student and you decide you don't want to pay anymore, you can downgrade your account to just a free Amazon Student account and the only benefit you'll receive is the student-specific discounts (targeted ads as I see it).

Amazon Mom

The paid version costs $79/yr and gives you "children-specific" discounts such as 20% off diapers when you subscribe-and-save (the usual discount for subscribe-and-save is 5%) and other Amazon Prime-like benefits. For example, you receive free two-day shipping and unlimited video streaming. But unlike the standard Amazon Prime account, you don't get full access to the Owners' Lending Library- you only receive one book a month.

What to sign-up for...

So what should you sign up for? Well, if you don't need to share the membership, and you are a student, I would go ahead and sign up for the Amazon Student account. Then for $39/yr, you would get

• free two-day shipping 
• unlimited video streaming 
• access the the Lending Library 

Then if want access to mom benefits, sign up for Amazon Mom after signing up for Amazon Student. Doing it this way gives you full access to the above and

• 20% off subscribe and save on diapers, wipes, etc. 

Similarly, if you're not eligible for Amazon Student, sign up for Amazon Prime before signing up for Amazon Mom to get the full benefits of Amazon Prime.

	Prime	Student	Mom
Cost	$79	$39	$79
2-day shipping	X	X	X
unlimited video streaming	X	X	X
lending library	X	X	1/mth
share account	X	-	-
20% s&s diapers	w/Mom	w/Mom	X