Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

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02nz
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Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by 02nz »

This is a popular deal so I figured I'd post a heads-up here that it's available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Family ... 08NYWXPCS/.

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) includes 12 months of Office and 1TB of OneDrive each for 6 users (unlimited devices).

$100 is the regular price but with the deal you get a $50 Amazon gift card, halving the effective cost. I believe that (unlike with the normal Office 365 download purchase) you cannot use your Amazon gift balance to purchase, since an Amazon gift card is included.

And yes auto-renewal is easy to turn off on Microsoft's site.
Tamales
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by Tamales »

I think it used to be the case that "family" had to all reside in the same house but I don't see that called out anymore. Can family members in different cities/states be combined under the family subscription?
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02nz
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by 02nz »

Tamales wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:09 am I think it used to be the case that "family" had to all reside in the same house but I don't see that called out anymore. Can family members in different cities/states be combined under the family subscription?
I haven't seen any such requirement, and Microsoft definitely doesn't care or check.
j9j
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by j9j »

Tamales wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:09 am I think it used to be the case that "family" had to all reside in the same house but I don't see that called out anymore. Can family members in different cities/states be combined under the family subscription?
Can be any 6 users. I am not a big fan of subscriptions so I noticed Office 2021 Home is on sale for $99. If all you need is word, excel, and PowerPoint then this is one time cost.
Broken Man 1999
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by Broken Man 1999 »

In reading the reviews at Amazon, it is reported that one must careful not to load the product in such a manner that you lose your original subscription, or find you have two subscriptions running concurrently.

I have subscribed for a few years, and I have been buying at Costco, $89.99 for a 15 month subscription. Amazon has the better deal, for now.

Already mentioned above is there is no requirement for the various users to all live at the same place.

The cloud storage alone would be a good deal.

Broken Man 1999
“If I cannot drink Bourbon and smoke cigars in Heaven then I shall not go." - Mark Twain
Topic Author
02nz
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by 02nz »

j9j wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:25 am
Tamales wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:09 am I think it used to be the case that "family" had to all reside in the same house but I don't see that called out anymore. Can family members in different cities/states be combined under the family subscription?
Can be any 6 users. I am not a big fan of subscriptions so I noticed Office 2021 Home is on sale for $99. If all you need is word, excel, and PowerPoint then this is one time cost.
That's limited to 1 user and 1 device.
rjbraun
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by rjbraun »

j9j wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:25 am
Tamales wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:09 am I think it used to be the case that "family" had to all reside in the same house but I don't see that called out anymore. Can family members in different cities/states be combined under the family subscription?
Can be any 6 users. I am not a big fan of subscriptions so I noticed Office 2021 Home is on sale for $99. If all you need is word, excel, and PowerPoint then this is one time cost.
I'm also not a fan of subscriptions where I presumably am locked into a recurring fee. Apart from the 1 TB of cloud storage, which I recognize can be attractive (if not to me), why would someone want a subscription vs a one-time fee? Is it to receive software updates? Arguably, I guess that is something that I might not want to miss out on. That said, I don't think I've ever updated the MS Office that has been running on my Macs for years now, and it doesn't seem to have been an issue.

OP: thanks for the heads-up. I've been on the sidelines with post-Thanksgiving deals but have actually been meaning to get Office for my new iMac, so your post was a helpful reminder. :happy
rjbraun
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by rjbraun »

02nz wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:44 pm
j9j wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:25 am
Tamales wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:09 am I think it used to be the case that "family" had to all reside in the same house but I don't see that called out anymore. Can family members in different cities/states be combined under the family subscription?
Can be any 6 users. I am not a big fan of subscriptions so I noticed Office 2021 Home is on sale for $99. If all you need is word, excel, and PowerPoint then this is one time cost.
That's limited to 1 user and 1 device.
Good point, but let's say someone only has one user/device: why would someone opt for this deal vs just doing the one-time fee of $99 (current sale price)? Assuming this current deal will repeat next year (not a given, of course), won't that be the "breakeven" where by the third year one would have been better off just subscribing for the one-time fee of $99 (assuming no interest in 1TB of cloud storage)?
Tamales
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by Tamales »

Also check if you get the 'employee discount' through your employer (probably mostly relevant to megacorps). That's available any time.
I think you can go to the MSFT 365 purchase page and initiate a purchase as if you were getting the employee discount and it asks you to enter your work email, and if you're eligible they send an email to your work email account for you to confirm it (once you get through that you can register it with your home email).
Exhilarate
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by Exhilarate »

One warning: this changes your Office subscription manager to Amazon from Microsoft, which disallows adding additional time from other vendors when/if they have better deals.

I also had a bad experience with this same Amazon deal a few years ago: had purchased multiple subscriptions which stacked ok initially. Both Microsoft and Amazon sites showed expiration date of a few years out. However, when the first year passed, Amazon invalidated the later years and immediately expired the subscription. Took a lot of back and forth with Amazon and Microsoft support to resolve.

Currently using the Costco deal mentioned by another poster above. Not as good as Amazon on price, but none of the shenanigans with taking over your subscription manager.
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02nz
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by 02nz »

Tamales wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:08 pm Also check if you get the 'employee discount' through your employer (probably mostly relevant to megacorps). That's available any time.
I think you can go to the MSFT 365 purchase page and initiate a purchase as if you were getting the employee discount and it asks you to enter your work email, and if you're eligible they send an email to your work email account for you to confirm it (once you get through that you can register it with your home email).
You're referring to the Home Use Program, which gives just a 30% discount on 365.
Last edited by 02nz on Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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02nz
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by 02nz »

rjbraun wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:52 pm
02nz wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:44 pm
j9j wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:25 am
Tamales wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:09 am I think it used to be the case that "family" had to all reside in the same house but I don't see that called out anymore. Can family members in different cities/states be combined under the family subscription?
Can be any 6 users. I am not a big fan of subscriptions so I noticed Office 2021 Home is on sale for $99. If all you need is word, excel, and PowerPoint then this is one time cost.
That's limited to 1 user and 1 device.
Good point, but let's say someone only has one user/device: why would someone opt for this deal vs just doing the one-time fee of $99 (current sale price)? Assuming this current deal will repeat next year (not a given, of course), won't that be the "breakeven" where by the third year one would have been better off just subscribing for the one-time fee of $99 (assuming no interest in 1TB of cloud storage)?
I didn't say everyone had the same needs.
niagara_guy
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by niagara_guy »

i use Open Office which is free. has equivalent products for microsoft's spreadsheet, word, powerpoint. not sure if it's 100% compatible but it's close.
Broken Man 1999
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by Broken Man 1999 »

I was set on taking this deal, but my current subscription from Costco runs until the end of 2022.

Hopefully the deal will be offered next year. If so, I'll use it unless there is a better deal.

Time will tell.

Broken Man 1999
“If I cannot drink Bourbon and smoke cigars in Heaven then I shall not go." - Mark Twain
rjbraun
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by rjbraun »

I was all set to buy the Office 365 download version for a single-user/device ($99 cyber Monday deal), but the negative Amazon reviews have scared me off. Too many recent reviewers seem to have had issues downloading the software. Not sure if I am surprised. In any case, rather than rush to save 50 bucks I guess I will hold off for now. I'm only really interested in MS Excel and for my purposes I could probably just use some free version, but I don't really like the idea of storing my personal financial details (which is what I largely use Excel for) on the cloud. :confused
runninginvestor
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by runninginvestor »

02nz wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:13 pm
Tamales wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:08 pm Also check if you get the 'employee discount' through your employer (probably mostly relevant to megacorps). That's available any time.
I think you can go to the MSFT 365 purchase page and initiate a purchase as if you were getting the employee discount and it asks you to enter your work email, and if you're eligible they send an email to your work email account for you to confirm it (once you get through that you can register it with your home email).
You're referring to the Home Use Program, which gives just a 30% discount on 365.
The one kind of nice thing about the HUP is you retain the discount as long as recurring billing is maintained. I don't know if that holds true for other discounted options.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/home-us ... ions?rtc=1

"You will receive the same Home Use Program discount rate as your original purchase for as long as you maintain recurring billing on your subscription."
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tuningfork
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by tuningfork »

rjbraun wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 9:16 pm I was all set to buy the Office 365 download version for a single-user/device ($99 cyber Monday deal), but the negative Amazon reviews have scared me off. Too many recent reviewers seem to have had issues downloading the software. Not sure if I am surprised. In any case, rather than rush to save 50 bucks I guess I will hold off for now. I'm only really interested in MS Excel and for my purposes I could probably just use some free version, but I don't really like the idea of storing my personal financial details (which is what I largely use Excel for) on the cloud. :confused
Office 365 does not store your data in the cloud unless you specifically save to OneDrive. You can easily choose a file location on your computer whenever you save a new file.
Snezz1e
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by Snezz1e »

Newegg has a bundle deal with 15 month subscription of Office 365 Family and Norton for $60. Norton is useless to me but the 15 months for $60 is $4/month which is lower than the $4.16/month you're paying for with 12 months for $50. Plus you don't have to have Amazon manage your subscription.

Plus with Microsoft if you disable auto-renew on your existing subscription and then load the code it will usually give you an extra month to turn auto-renew back on. I don't think you get that with Amazon option.

Newegg also has a bundle with H&R Block Deluxe for $70. For those that use the software you're basically getting it for $10.
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by cjking »

rjbraun wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:52 pm
02nz wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:44 pm
j9j wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:25 am
Tamales wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:09 am I think it used to be the case that "family" had to all reside in the same house but I don't see that called out anymore. Can family members in different cities/states be combined under the family subscription?
Can be any 6 users. I am not a big fan of subscriptions so I noticed Office 2021 Home is on sale for $99. If all you need is word, excel, and PowerPoint then this is one time cost.
That's limited to 1 user and 1 device.
Good point, but let's say someone only has one user/device: why would someone opt for this deal vs just doing the one-time fee of $99 (current sale price)? Assuming this current deal will repeat next year (not a given, of course), won't that be the "breakeven" where by the third year one would have been better off just subscribing for the one-time fee of $99 (assuming no interest in 1TB of cloud storage)?
I'm averse to subscriptions, but have signed up to the home use package. Wanted to do it before I retired, so I could have the discount for life. I do have a family of three who can benefit, and for me it's a cheap way of getting cloud storage, which I do value. Cloud storage, properly used, means I no longer have to worry about backups, or anything happening to family devices. One computer could explode today, and the user be up and running again with documents and data available within minutes of getting access to another Windows device. (While waiting the 24 hours it takes Amazon to deliver a replacement device, another family members laptop could be borrowed.)

Having said all that, one thing that tipped me over the edge is that I am an Excel user for my investment spreadsheet, and it seems office 365 versions will in future have features that stand-alone versions do not. At the time I subscribed, only Excel 365 gave you access to stock prices, stand-alone Excel did not. (No idea if this has changed since, I believe not.) I also read about a new feature, user-defined named functions, which sounded useful, and was apparently only going to be in the 365 version of Excel. That was a while ago, again I don't know if the difference still exists. Also at the time, the then new XLOOKUP function was only in 365, not the standalone version.
rjbraun
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by rjbraun »

tuningfork wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:01 pm
rjbraun wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 9:16 pm I was all set to buy the Office 365 download version for a single-user/device ($99 cyber Monday deal), but the negative Amazon reviews have scared me off. Too many recent reviewers seem to have had issues downloading the software. Not sure if I am surprised. In any case, rather than rush to save 50 bucks I guess I will hold off for now. I'm only really interested in MS Excel and for my purposes I could probably just use some free version, but I don't really like the idea of storing my personal financial details (which is what I largely use Excel for) on the cloud. :confused
Office 365 does not store your data in the cloud unless you specifically save to OneDrive. You can easily choose a file location on your computer whenever you save a new file.

Interesting, I didn't know that. Thank you.

cjking wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 5:55 am I'm averse to subscriptions, but have signed up to the home use package. Wanted to do it before I retired, so I could have the discount for life. I do have a family of three who can benefit, and for me it's a cheap way of getting cloud storage, which I do value. Cloud storage, properly used, means I no longer have to worry about backups, or anything happening to family devices. One computer could explode today, and the user be up and running again with documents and data available within minutes of getting access to another Windows device. (While waiting the 24 hours it takes Amazon to deliver a replacement device, another family members laptop could be borrowed.)

Having said all that, one thing that tipped me over the edge is that I am an Excel user for my investment spreadsheet, and it seems office 365 versions will in future have features that stand-alone versions do not. At the time I subscribed, only Excel 365 gave you access to stock prices, stand-alone Excel did not. (No idea if this has changed since, I believe not.) I also read about a new feature, user-defined named functions, which sounded useful, and was apparently only going to be in the 365 version of Excel. That was a while ago, again I don't know if the difference still exists. Also at the time, the then new XLOOKUP function was only in 365, not the standalone version.
Ahhh . . . your post is compelling me to reconsider my aversion to storing stuff on the cloud. I currently backup stuff to an external hard drive (two, actually) but do worry about it failing. Ugh. :confused Thanks for highlighting differences you have noticed between the 365 and standalone versions.
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tuningfork
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by tuningfork »

[never mind, mods can delete]
Last edited by tuningfork on Tue Nov 30, 2021 6:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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djmbob
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by djmbob »

If you are a Veteran and eligible to shop at AAFES stores (which I think now all veterans are eligible), they have MS 365 Family Military Edition today for $49.99... you can also share with up to 6 users.
Cheers,
Ray
Snezz1e
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Re: Office 365 Family deal at Amazon (Cyber Monday 2021)

Post by Snezz1e »

djmbob wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:56 pm If you are a Veteran and eligible to shop at AAFES stores (which I think now all veterans are eligible), they have MS 365 Family Military Edition today for $49.99... you can also share with up to 6 users.
Cheers,
Ray
FYI, DoD Civilians can now make online accounts and shop in person now.
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