Amazon Prime Will Now Only Allow Sharing Between Two Adults, Four Kids

Even at $99 a year, Amazon Prime is a great deal if you often order items from the giant retailer - the free two-day shipping alone is w...

Even at $99 a year, Amazon Prime is a great deal if you often order items from the giant retailer - the free two-day shipping alone is worth it for impatient types, and extras like a collection of free streaming videos don't hurt. Before now you could make your dollar go even further by sharing an account with up to four other Amazon customers (for a total of five). Alas, the halcyon days of that frugal fivesome are over: Amazon now restricts you to two adult users per Prime account.

The new setup seems particularly targeted at nuclear families. The two adults can both access the Prime account, with each person having access to the other's credit or debit cards on the Amazon account after the original owner verifies it. Up to four children can access the Prime account for things like Amazon Prime Instant Video or the Kindle Lender's Library, but (smartly) won't be authorized to spend any money. This setup works for any service where an Amazon account is required, including the Kindle and Amazon Video apps for Android.

Here are the Prime services affected:

Prime shipping
Prime Instant Video (streaming only)
Kindle Owners' Lending Library
Prime Early Access
Prime Exclusive Deals

If you've already shared your Prime account with more than one person, you're grandfathered in. The changes have already been made, but you won't lose access to any of the sharing accounts you've already enabled unless you manually disconnect one. Single Amazonians: carry on, nothing to see here.