As an entrepreneur selling products through Amazon, you may have encountered an ambiguous charge on your business credit card statement labeled "Amazon Prime PMTS." I know how confusing these cryptic transactions can be, especially when managing business finances.
In my experience advising small ecommerce businesses, I‘ve found many owners unaware that Amazon Prime PMTS refers to charges for Amazon Prime membership fees. Gaining clarity on these transactions is key to properly tracking business expenses.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll draw on my expertise to explain everything you need to know as a small business owner about Amazon Prime PMTS.
What is Amazon Prime PMTS?
Amazon Prime PMTS stands for "Payments" and indicates charges related to your Amazon Prime membership subscription fees.
Specifically, PMTS is the transaction name used by Amazon when automatically billing your card on file for Prime membership costs on a recurring basis.
On your statement, Visa card charges will display as "AMZN.COM/PMTS" while Mastercard charges appear as "AMZN MKTP US."
But in both instances, PMTS signals that this transaction is for your Prime membership payment.
Recurring Amazon Prime Subscription Billing
As a Prime member, Amazon bills your card periodically based on your membership type:
- Monthly memberships are charged each month on the date you originally subscribed. So if you joined Prime on the 15th, you‘ll be billed on the 15th of every month.
- Annual memberships are charged each year around the renewal date you first signed up. For example, if you joined on March 5, 2021, you‘ll be billed annually around that date.
In 2021 alone, Amazon generated $8.12 billion in revenue just from Prime membership fees as adoption continues growing. So monitoring these PMTS charges as a business expense is essential.
Types of Amazon Prime Memberships
Amazon offers various Prime membership options that determine your billing frequency:
- Prime Monthly – $14.99 per month, renews monthly
- Prime Annual – $139 per year, renews annually
- Prime Student – $7.49 per month or $69 per year for students, renews monthly or annually
- Prime Video – $8.99 per month for video streaming only
The type of Prime PMTS charge on your statement will depend on which of these memberships you or your employees have activated.
As a business owner, it‘s important to regularly audit all company Amazon accounts to identify any unused or duplicate Prime memberships that may be unintentionally racking up charges.
Strategies for Managing Prime PMTS Charges
To take control of Prime PMTS transactions as a business, here are my top recommendations:
- Confirm active subscriptions – Check all your Amazon accounts to identity unnecessary memberships incurring charges. Cancel any duplicates.
- Update billing details – Change the card on file for any subscriptions you wish to keep active to control where charges appear.
- Set payment alerts – Enable account alerts to notify you before upcoming Prime renewals so you can evaluate whether to continue the membership.
- Mark renewals in your calendar – Manually add your Prime renewal dates to your business calendar to remember to review the memberships annually.
- Contact Amazon – If you see any irregular Prime PMTS charges, immediately contact Amazon customer service to dispute unauthorized transactions.
Carefully monitoring your Prime PMTS charges this way provides transparency into business expenses and helps optimize your overall Amazon selling strategy.
Example of Amazon Prime PMTS on a Statement
To make these Prime payment transactions even more clear, here‘s an example of what Amazon Prime PMTS looks like on a real business credit card statement:
As you can see, the charge is listed as "AMZNPRIME MEMBERSHIP" with PMTS appearing in the transaction name, signaling this is a Prime membership payment.
The Bottom Line
I hope this guide has helped demystify what Amazon Prime PMTS means and empowered you to better track these charges as a small ecommerce business owner. Staying informed about Prime payment processing can help you make strategic decisions regarding Amazon memberships and subscriptions as part of your broader selling strategy.
The key is familiarizing yourself with how Prime billing works and implementing financial systems to regularly audit your accounts. With the right approach, you can confidently manage Prime expenses just like other business operating costs.
As your small business consultant, let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m always happy to help entrepreneurs translate ambiguous Amazon transactions into insights to power smarter financial management.
