Any good reason to move my Kindle to .co.uk?

Mad Mike

I have just noticed that Irish Kindle users can now move their Kindle account from USA Amazon to UK Amazon. The change seems to be permanent so I am wondering if there is any good reason to do this? I am pretty happy with Kindle USA. I read a lot of fantasy and SF (I know) and the US site has a great selection and reasonable prices. Not being able to spend UK£ vouchers on my Kindle is a minor pain but other than that I see no reason to change. Am I missing any thing?

wildwolf1

I just saw this today and moved mine straight away - hope I haven't been too hasty :eek: I was so delighted to see it i just clicked that button!

richardw001

I've kept mine on the .com - I'd be curious to know can you move back once you've moved ?! - anyone try ?

wildwolf1

I haven't tried to change back, as I'm delighted to be able to use the UK site now. However, I do have the option to change country in Manage Kindle...

Mad Mike

OK I tried some experiments with some interesting results. It appears to me that the price and selection you are offered depends on your billing address not on which Amazon you log into.

For example if I log in as myself with an Irish address
Kindle ".com" Game of Thrones Book 1, Kindle Edition by George R. R. Martin : $5.34
Kindle ".co.uk" Game of Thrones Book 1, Kindle Edition by George R. R. Martin: £3.68

Kindle ".com" The Forgotten, Kindle Edition by David Baldacci $6.11
Kindle ".co.uk" The Forgotten, Kindle Edition by David Baldacci £3.98

These prices are identical allowing for currency conversion but look at what happens when I log in using an American billing address:

Kindle ".com" Game of Thrones Book 1, Kindle Edition: $9.99
Kindle ".co.uk" Game of Thrones Book 1 Kindle Edition: Won't sell .co.uk Kindle books to your country

Kindle ".com" The Forgotten, Kindle Edition: $8.83
Kindle ".co.uk" The Forgotten, Kindle Edition: Won't sell .co.uk Kindle books to your country

I am pretty sure that when I first got a Kindle in Ireland I was shopping in the US store at American prices but that seems to have changed and now it seems that as long as my billing address is Irish I am shopping in the UK Kindle store but just paying in dollars. If that is the case then there is no reason not to switch to the UK version. At least then you will be able to use the same currency for kindle books as for everything else on Amazon. It is also interesting to note that UK Kindle prices seem to be lower on the titles that I checked.

wildwolf1

That is interesting - thanks for the update. One of the main reasons I was happy to change was the more reasonable UK Kindle Book prices. I have also noticed today that I am now eligible to use the Kindle Lending Library (requires sign-up to Amazon Prime) and I have signed up for a one-month Free Trial Membership of Prime to try this out.

Update - Cancel that - as an Irish Resident I'm not elegible to access the Lending Library - contacted Amazon.co.uk Cust. Services to clarify with them and here's the response i got ...

"I'm sorry for any confusion caused.

Further to our recent Chat conversation, I would like to confirm that unfortunately, residents of Ireland and Gibraltar are not eligible to borrow through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

Due to the circumstances, I’ve now cancelled your Amazon Prime membership."

richardw001

wildwolf1 wrote: »

That is interesting - thanks for the update. One of the main reasons I was happy to change was the more reasonable UK Kindle Book prices. I have also noticed today that I am now eligible to use the Kindle Lending Library (requires sign-up to Amazon Prime) and I have signed up for a one-month Free Trial Membership of Prime to try this out.

Update - Cancel that - as an Irish Resident I'm not elegible to access the Lending Library - contacted Amazon.co.uk Cust. Services to clarify with them and here's the response i got ...

"I'm sorry for any confusion caused.

Further to our recent Chat conversation, I would like to confirm that unfortunately, residents of Ireland and Gibraltar are not eligible to borrow through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

Due to the circumstances, I’ve now cancelled your Amazon Prime membership."

Thats interesting regarding the lending library - did they give any reason why not ?

wildwolf1

No, they didn't give me any reason.....

Gerard_Smith

With the Kindle Fire finally coming to Ireland and Gibraltar perhaps the lending library will follow?

Shelmalier

Maybe somebody here can help. I can move from amazon.com to amazon.co.uk and I can move back again but I can't find anywhere to buy Vince Flynn's Transfer Of Power for Kindle anywhere. It says for digital copywrite reasons it's not available in my territory. Any ideas? Thanks

Mad Mike

@Shemalier seems strange that you can buy Vince Flynn's ebooks from several other online retailers in Europe but they all use the epub format which Kindle isn't compatible with (eg Waterstones) . It is possible to convert epub to Kindle compatible mobi format using the excellent Calibre programme but if the book has drm (quite likely) then things get more complicated and I don't think Boards.ie condones discussions about drm removal. Have you tried emailing the Author? They may be able to explain what is going on.

By the way this example has cleared up the issue of dollar Kindle versus Pound Kindle for me. The currency makes no difference to the book selection. You get the selection that is based on your home location. A few years ago it was different and we got the US books.