It's surprisingly easy to share your $99 Amazon Prime membership with someone else

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AP Photo/Ben Margot

Did you know that you can share your Amazon Prime perks, including free two-day shipping and on-demand video streaming, with someone else for free?

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The feature is called Amazon Household. It lets two people share some of the benefits of a Prime membership, and maybe even share the $99 per year cost. 

Amazon actually used to let Prime members share their perks with up to four people, but as of Monday you can only share with one other adult. You also have to be willing to let the other person have access to your credit card information, which is likely an attempt to restrict sharing to close family or significant others.

Here's how it works.

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To create your Amazon Household, you have to enter the Amazon account login for the person you want to share your Prime benefits with.

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Sign in to Amazon.com, then click "Manage Your Content and Devices" in the Your Account section. Next, navigate to Settings on the far right column. You can add someone to your account under "Households And Family Library."

Amazon recommends that you're with the person you'd like to invite when you start the process, unless that person is comfortable giving you their Amazon login info.

You and the person you're inviting have to be willing to share access to each other's payment information.

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This means you'll both be able to make purchases on Amazon with the other's credit card — another reason to be sure that the person you invite is family, a significant other, or a close friend you trust.

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You can share more than just free two-day shipping through Prime.

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Amazon lets a household have access to each other's apps, audiobooks from Audible, and Kindle e-books.

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There's a catch if you want to share Amazon Prime Video access.

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To share Amazon's Netflix competitor with someone else, you have to set up 1-Click, an aptly-named Amazon payment option which allows you to buy things with only one click of your mouse. After you click the button, the product is charged to the card and shipped to the address that's associated with 1-Click.

You can only have one card and one address associated with 1-Click, though the person you're sharing with can still charge products to different cards and ship them to different addresses  

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Adjust your Amazon Household settings at any time in your account's settings.

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You can enable Prime Video sharing at a later time or change who you're sharing your perks with. 

For more about Amazon Household, check out Amazon's detailed FAQ.

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