Update: This offer is unfortunately for student accounts only.
The Offer
- Purchase a $25 Amazon gift card and receive a free $5 Amazon credit with code:Â STUDWEEK at checkout.
This deal starts at the beginning of the day October 7 based on Pacific Time (at midnight), which will be 3 am EST on October 7.
The Fine Print
- Offer seems to be only for a physical gift card, not an e-gift card.
- Update: Amazon Student members only
Our Verdict
This deal would be especially exciting if it’s repeatable, but I’m guessing it will be limited to one offer per Amazon account. For those who constantly purchase things on Amazon it’s a worthwhile deal, though it’s a pain that the offer is only for physical gift cards and apparently not for e-gift cards which are easier to deal with.
Stack the Deal:
- Pay with you Discover card or Freedom card for 5% back as per the Q4 category. Many of us will even get the 5% from Discover doubled at year’s end.
- Go through the Giving Assistant shopping portal and hopefully get 5% cashback on the purchase as well. Gift cards aren’t guaranteed to earn portal cashback, but hopefully it will work anyway (worked for me). See also our review of the Giving Assistant portal.
Extra $5 Bonus with Portal
Interestingly, Giving Assistant just updated their referral program to include a $5 bonus for any new member who signs up using a referral link and earns any amount of cashback. (Previously, only the referrer got the $5 bonus; now both get a $5 bonus.) If you never signed up previously, now is a good time to do so and take advantage of the $5 Amazon credit + $5 Giving Assistant bonus with one purchase. Since Giving Assistant doesn’t have any minimum payout amount, you’ll hopefully be able to get $6.25 payout for this purchase alone ($5 bonus + $1.25 for the $25 purchase). Here’s my referral link.
HT: Slickdeals
Thanks for the info, Chuck! I have tried it twice. The first $5 promo code has already arrived as I purchased the first $25 gift card earlier today. I am still waiting to see the second one, which possibly will arrive. I did see the message saying that my second purchase also qualified the promotion, but I assume they only send out the promo code when the gift card order is shipped.
I think I made a mistake to type .com. The giving assistant portal is .org!
Thanks for clarifying the details Chuck! I would only add that once signed in to your Amazon Prime Student account, you will see the deal below. Keep this in mind if you’re navigating to Amazon from the Giving Assistant website.
Also, keep in mind that anyone with a .edu email address can sign up for the Amazon Prime as a student account.
If you or a family member/friend has access to a .edu email account, you can sign up for an Amazon Student Prime account, which is great because it gives you 6 months FREE of Amazon Prime membership. After that your Prime membership is at 50%, currently that would be $50/year after the free 6 months. If you don’t want to continue the Prime membership, after you sign up cancel the auto-renew option and you will still enjoy the 6 month of free Prime benefits.
A .edu account is any email address that ends with .edu and you don’t actually have to be a student to get these benefits (though you will asked to pick a college during sign up). You only need the .edu email address to activate your Prime Membership, since Amazon emails you the activation link there. Afterwards you can change your email address with Amazon to your regular non-edu one, you will still be able to keep the membership with the student benefits…forever hopefully, in my case for several years.
You don’t need a referring link to get these benefits, but if you use mine you get the same benefits and I also get a $5 referring bonus. Here it is: http://www.amazon.com/gp/student/signup/info?ie=UTF8&refcust=PDVF3A23GEX5KALSC4TKO2NYNI
By the way, here’s the link to the deal where you also see its terms (then click below to purchase the gift card): http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_acsd_al_bw_hr_asasd15r_2_ot?_encoding=UTF8&ie=UTF8&node=13110879011
Amazon is asking for proof that I’m an enrolled student to renew beyond the first year. They require one of the following:
A transcript or class list for the current term (must include the date/term)
A copy or picture of your student ID (must include an expiration date or term)
A tuition bill for the current term (must include the date/term)
An official acceptance letter for the upcoming term (must include the matriculation date)
Sounds like my gravy train is ending.
When did you sign up for Amazon Student? Did you need to show anything at that time besides using the .edu email address?
Did your Student Prime membership ever lapse?
Was your account set on auto-renew?
When I first signed up for Amazon Student Prime I only needed the .edu address. I unchecked the auto-renew at that time since I was new to Prime altogether and wanted to test drive it during the 6 free months, I liked it (would keep it even at full price) and set it to autorenew and haven’t run into any issues since.
If they somehow made it a new policy to require such documents for auto-renewals also, I won’t know in over a year as to how it will affect my acct since they extended my membership due to a mishap on their part during deliveries.
Just looked. I signed up in Oct, 2013. Only needed the email address to start.
Never lapsed.
Set up to auto-renew.
So it auto-renewed for the second year but they are wanting documentation for the third year.
Maybe there will be more data points like yours (thx) to establish if Amazon whether Amazon is letting people still sign up with just a .edu email address and then whether they now require documentation for renewals of student accounts in all cases and if so how long after the initial student sign up.
I’m guessing its a new overall policy, but I wouldn’t be surprised on the other hand if there’s some auto-flags that comb some accounts based on set criteria and trigger this.
Another thing I found out today is that Amazon Prime Student is only supposed to last 4 years, after that Amazon emails you letting you know that the prime fee will be bumped to the regular rate.
Not sure if you’ve had the student account for a cumulative time of 4 years or not at this point, I haven’t.
It’s only available for student accounts with active prime subscriptions
I’m not getting that offer page here with Amazon student and paid student prime status. So maybe you are right.
You can use only the promo code as long as you have amazon student account.
Yeh, disappointed. Used to be a student account but stopped after I graduate and they required enrollment proof to renew.
for students with prime only
Oct 7th I think
Thanks
Get $10 when signing up amazon student prime:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/student/signup/info?ie=UTF8&refcust=MBV5CODPROUMWX4WFUB7WICLEM&ref_type=generic