Amazon 20% Discount Coming Off Original Price for Select Items, Effective Discount of up to 50%

It’s Amazon Prime Day with lots of special deals for Prime members. You may also recall that Amazon teamed up with Amex to offer 20% off when you use at least 1 MR point during payment.

Readers point out that on some of the Amazon sales, the 20% comes off the original price instead of the discounted price, giving an effective discount of far greater than 20%. For example, if you there’s a $200 item discounted to $100, and you get 20% off the original price, you’ll end up with a 40% discount and a total cost of just $60.

20% off activation link (affiliate links here and below)

A lot of us have already maxed out the 20% discount immediately and won’t be able to take advantage of this unless you find the offer on a new Amazon account. For those who still have the 20% offer, you’ll actually be getting significantly more than 20% off some items.

It’s not clear which deals Amazon calculate the 20% discount based on the original price and which they use the discounted price. I’m guessing that all Amazon devices will calculate based on the original price, giving you a discount of much more than 20% (let us know if you see otherwise). Some other deals on Amazon are working as well, even not Amazon devices, such as the Ring Doorbell and the Sennheiser headphones.

My theory is that the deals which Amazon themselves is taking the hit, they calculate based on the original price since that’s the real vendor price in their system, while items that the vendor worked with Amazon to lower their price in honor of Prime Day, the Amazon system recognizes the discounted price as the ‘real’ price and only gives the 20% discount based on the discounted price.

Some examples:

Here’s a link to all deals on Amazon devices. This trick will probably work on all of those Amazon devices, and will work on some regular, non-Amazon-device deals coming out throughout today and tomorrow. Let us know where you see it working. We’ve been adding any deals we see on our main Prime Day stickied post. 

Hat tip to reader Jordan

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J. Sarayda Shapiro
J. Sarayda Shapiro (@guest_618350)
July 17, 2018 20:33

This works on “Deal of the Day” and maybe on other deals that have a separate discount listed in one’s order summary. In other words, if there’s a “Deal of the Day” that says the item is usually $100 and is now $70, then the item will show up in one’s cart with a price of $100. You will get 20% off the $100 price shown in your cart, plus a separate “Deal of the Day” discount of $30. This makes the item $50 after discounts.

In contrast, an item that shows up as $70 in your cart will just get 20% off of $70, making the item $56 after discounts.

Jatan
Jatan (@guest_617752)
July 16, 2018 21:28

Samsung Qi Wireless Charger (2018) isn’t bad w/ 20% discount:
Item(s) Subtotal: $66.43
Shipping & Handling: $0.00
Prime Savings: -$36.44
Amex 20% Off: -$13.29
Total before tax: $16.70

Used my $10 Whole Foods credit so it came out to $6.70+tax

CP
CP (@guest_617725)
July 16, 2018 19:48

I was under the impression this only worked once for each AMEX card you had but I’ve used this a dozen times already today and it keeps giving me 20% off. Amazing.

coldaggluatannin
coldaggluatannin (@guest_617709)
July 16, 2018 19:19

$130 anova sous vide with wifi on sale for 85 – 25.80 = $63 including tax. Ive since seen it now at 69.99 but it says there is a limit of one. Iwanted to reorder and then cancel initial, but ill take a good deal of $63 than miss out (though $47 out the door sounds awesome!). This device was $180 about 6 months ago

Tyler
Tyler (@guest_617641)
July 16, 2018 17:22

Works on the Bose QC25’s as well. $84.99 before tax on the Android version ($40 off), or $69.20 for the iOS version ($55.80 off).

Gdawg
Gdawg (@guest_617613)
July 16, 2018 16:17

Worked for me on the Vitamix 7500 blender. Original Price: $529.99, prime day discount: -$160.04, 20% discount: -$100 for a total before tax of $269.95 🙂

Super Leisure Man
Super Leisure Man (@guest_617602)
July 16, 2018 15:53

Don’t buy the ring doorbell. it’s junk.

Ann
Ann (@guest_617632)
July 16, 2018 16:52

I know it gets mixed reviews, but there have been several reports in my local news of arrests made using Ring doorbell cams’ videos in the last few months.

James33
James33 (@guest_617590)
July 16, 2018 15:39

20% off list price worked for Sennheiser HD 4.50 SE Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones as well. Just $60!

Rox
Rox (@guest_617630)
July 16, 2018 16:44

Thank you. I was looking for Noise cancelling headphone. Got it.

MarcoPolo
MarcoPolo (@guest_617582)
July 16, 2018 15:29

I’m getting Amazon Fire TV Stick w/ Alexa Voice Remote for $12.70
With WFs $10 discount I should be able to get it for $2.70

James33
James33 (@guest_617560)
July 16, 2018 14:58

Worked on Amazon Echo Dot + Smart bulb kit. $15 Amex discount from $75 list price and not $50 sale price.