So you save 50 percent thanks to the social pass or exemption from broadcasting fees

The fact that Amazon is offering its Prime subscription, which normally costs 69 euros per year or 7.99 euros per month, for students (and now also for those who have to leave the country on presentation of appropriate evidence) at half price is nothing new. But now the company has announced another discount that could affect significantly more people: Those who are exempt from broadcasting fees or have a social pass can also get the Amazon Prime subscription for half the price, i.e. for 3.99 euros per month .

You get so explains Amazon, the full Prime Service, which on the one hand consists of shorter delivery times, but on the other hand also includes Amazon Prime Video as well as the Amazon Music offer (two million titles, not the complete Music Unlimited) and Prime Reading, unlimited photo storage space and some special offers, where Prime customers are preferred.

So far, however, Amazon has only been able to do a small part of the necessary proof to process. As the company explains, this is either a valid notification of the exemption from broadcasting fees – whether this obviously includes the severely handicapped pass with the RF mark is not described in more detail – or the current social passports of the following cities and municipalities: Berlin, Bielefeld, Bochum, Bonn, Braunschweig , Bremen, Chemnitz, Dortmund, Dresden, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt am Main, Halle (Saale), Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Mannheim, Mönchengladbach, Munich, Münster, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Wuppertal. Amazon explains that the list of supported documents will be expanded over time.

If you don’t have a Prime membership yet, you can first use the one-month trial membership on Black Friday. Even those who are already Prime members can probably switch to the discounted Prime membership after a similarly simple workflow as with the student version.

It should be noted that the discounted Prime membership can only be applied for for twelve months with proof of the corresponding requirements and then expires automatically and may have to be applied for again. You can cancel Prime membership at the special conditions at any time – and Amazon itself reserves the right to cancel membership at its own discretion with a notice period of 14 days.

It is interesting that Amazon did not publicize these special conditions, which are intended exclusively for customers residing in Germany, but rather circulate them primarily in appropriate social and disability forums (as well as in relevant communities such as Mydealz).

However, Amazon’s invoice has a small but decisive blemish: the 50 percent discount – as with the student version of the Prime subscription – only applies to the monthly price. The annual price is not discounted, so that of the 50 percent with a price of 47.88 euros instead of 69 euros, only a part is actually saved. However, this also has the advantage that the sum is not debited from your account in one go, but in clear monthly installments.

It is not known whether Amazon includes the information that customers have reduced their Prime membership through a social passport in its ratings of the payment methods offered, i.e. no longer offers such customers, for example, to purchase on account. From the company’s point of view, it would be possible and understandable, but it will only have to be revealed in the next few months.