Amazon Prime has rolled back its cheapest monthly subscription plan of Rs 129. In the new guidelines of RBI, it was asked to apply Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA) for recurring online payments.
If you are planning to take Amazon Prime membership then this news is for you. Amazon Prime has rolled back its cheapest monthly subscription plan of Rs 129, months after it was shut down on the Reserve Bank of India’s notice. In the new guidelines of RBI, it was asked to apply an Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA) for recurring online payments. Soon after discontinuing the monthly plan, Amazon only had a three-month plan and an annual plan, but now the Rs 129 plan has been added back to the list with a few additions.
Amazon Prime’s affordable subscription plan
So if you are new to the subscription business, you will now get three options when you open the Amazon Prime subscription website. Amazon has now listed three subscription plans including Rs 129 monthly plan, Rs 329 three months plan, and Rs 999 annual plan. Notably, Amazon has reduced the rates for the three-month plan, which was earlier priced at Rs 387. Now here’s the catch. While new customers can buy the annual and three-month plans using all electronic methods, the Rs 129 monthly plan can only be purchased through credit cards or select debit cards.
Subscription of the new plan will be available only on RBI guidelines
Amazon has noted on its FAQ page that the Rs 129 monthly plan can only be purchased using debit and credit cards of banks that have complied with the RBI’s new guidelines on recurring payments. Amazon also discontinued new member sign-ups for the free trial of Amazon Prime until further notice.
Amazon has closed its free trial
“Please note that effective October 1, 2021, your bank may not be able to process any request for automatic payment on your credit/debit card unless it is in compliance with RBI’s e-mandate guidelines. Hence, We have temporarily closed new member sign-ups for Amazon Prime free trial until further notice. You can enjoy Prime membership benefits by manually renewing/signing up for monthly, three-month, or annual Prime membership here Effective October 1, 2021, updates under this notice will remove any conflicting positions in the Prime T&C set out below,” notes Amazon.
The new mandate was announced by RBI in August 2019. This was initially applicable to cards and wallets, but later the framework was extended to cover Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions as well.
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