Amazon denies doubling free delivery threshold, but some shoppers report it costing more

We told Amazon shoppers planning to buy goods costing under £20 to do so before six in the evening yesterday, as the online retail giant was planning to up the minimum spend for free delivery from £10 to £20.

But Amazon told us this morning that it had "made no changes to Free Super Saver Delivery at this time". We received the below email from Amazon yesterday.

When we checked just after 6pm yesterday and around 9.30am today, Amazon's terms and conditions still stated that the minimum spend for free delivery was £10, and this was also the case when we carried out dummy transactions.

However, we've since seen reports, which Amazon has yet to confirm, despite us constantly chasing it for answers, from shoppers who say they've had to spend at least £20 to get free delivery. Here are some of the reports we've seen:

• @Podgy1001: "Amazon's website was showing free delivery on orders over £20 this morning, pleased to see it's been changed back to £10 now."

• @SCoulter1982: "It did [cost a minimum of £20 for free delivery] last night – I ordered something and it was definitely £20."

• Doc N: "I checked this last night and it was definitely requiring £20 (books £10) before free postage was included. Oddly, though, when you checked the FAQ it was still showing the old £10 figure."

• problemcashback says: "At 8pm last night it did change to £20, I had checked just before 8pm and it was still £10. Earlier in the day web chat confirmed it would be changing."

We will update this news story as soon as we get a response from Amazon about what's going on.

Amazon delivery charges

In July 2013, Amazon introduced a £10 minimum spend to qualify for its free delivery. But postage was still free for items under £10 in certain categories, including books, music, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, software or video games.

However, it closed this loophole in January 2014.

Standard first class delivery usually costs between £1.19 and £4.28 per delivery, plus an additional 30p-£1.73 per item – the price you'll be charged depends on the items. But there are still a few tricks you can use to get free delivery.

• Bump up the value of your order: If your order costs under £10, check how much the delivery will cost. If the delivery cost takes the total order over £10, instead buy something small that you need anyway to take the order up to the qualifying £10 for free delivery.

• Get an Amazon Prime trial: Amazon is offering Prime newbies a free one-month trial of its service. The service gets you unlimited free one-day delivery. Just remember to cancel before the month is up, or £79/year will be taken from your account. See our 'Just got my Amazon Prime £79 back' to cancel, and for help getting your money back if you've unwittingly paid the fee.

Remember Amazon may not be the cheapest in the first place, so before buying anything online always do a comparison first using our MegaShopBot tool.