I really hate their dark-pattern of holding your credits hostage if you want to pause your account. I have like 10 credits that I don't want to spend right now, I'm backed up and hardly reading and I can't pause my Audible membership that's $24/mo without losing my credits. I also don't want to be rushed to pick out 10 books and possibly waste my credits so I can pause. I'm VERY picky about what books I burn a credit on.

It's a really crappy way of keeping me tied in and I want to make sure people know about it.

You can convert your membership into the "Silver Plan", which charges you every other month. This way you're paying a bit less.

However, their silver plan is very hidden away and is only presented as an option when you go to cancel your account. And even then it might not work and you'll have to write to Customer Care to switch.

Oh interesting. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll check that out.

Same. But I let my credits go to waste and will just never be a member again. Not gonna reward their stupid behavior.

Looks like Libro.fm has a similar subscription service, although it's $15/month for one book. This isn't all that shocking that it's a bit more expensive than Amazon. Hard to beat them on price.

You can set it up so your local bookstore gets a kickback from Libro.fm, too.

And if you pay for the year up front, it's even cheaper. (Actually, I think the 1st year offer for 12 audio books is a better deal than that too.)