Tech talk, social media, blogging, computing tips and tricks

← →

Kindle Content Outside the US

July 30th, 2008 by David Bradley >> 12 Comments

Amazon KindleWant to get hold of content for your Amazon Kindle Reader but not living in the US? You could make a trip or ask a friend of relative to do the business, but there is a much simpler way and it doesn’t involve spoofing your shipping address or somehow getting hold of a US credit card. All you have to do is buy an Amazon gift card and use the balance to buy your Kindle content online before your credit card is debited. nerdgirl has the full skinny on how to do this, but basically:

  • Sign into Amazon.com with your international account
  • Register your Kindle online (you have got one, I assume)
  • Set up 1-Click payment for your Kindle using your credit card number but accidentally enter a US billing address. This is not fraudulent because the card is not going to be authorized or debited at any point
  • Buy a Gift Card and send the code to your own email address
  • Apply the Gift Card to your Kindle account
  • Buy what you like for your Kindle
  • Download your purchased books and sync to your Kindle via USB, go to your digital downloads on Amazon
  • Top up your Gift Card before it expires and make sure you don’t use the credit card on the account.

Remember, that outside the US you won’t have any Kindle wireless connectivity to get day-to-day content updates from news sources (for now at least, Amazon is gearing up to launch Kindle internationally). But, for the time being at least you now have some digital books to read on your beach holiday, just don’t get sand in your Kindle, not a problem for readers of traditional pulp fiction, of course.


Leave a comment ↓

  • Judy // Feb 27, 2009 at 2:44 pm

    Thanks so much for your advice on getting around the silly Kindle rules. I live in SOuth Africa and really want one, and was going to try and persuade a friend of mine to let me use her US credit card…..tricky….I can do it all myself…is anyone else doing this???

  • Don // Apr 22, 2009 at 10:53 am

    I wonder if amazon is tightening the screws on this? I have a US address, US credit card, a US-registered Kindle, and I am accessing the amazon site over a VPN, and still I am told “geographic restrictions” prevent me from purchasing Kindle books. Makes the Kindle significantly less useful for someone who travls a lot…

  • David Bradley // Apr 22, 2009 at 11:02 am

    If your VPN is serving from a US IP address, how could they know you were outside the US?

  • Don // Apr 22, 2009 at 11:41 am

    Exactly! Hence my extreme puzzlement… Looking for other causes…

  • David Bradley // Apr 22, 2009 at 11:43 am

    It has to be something else. Have you tried a different VPN, it could be the VPN itself that’s blocking Kindle activity…

  • Don // Apr 22, 2009 at 11:52 am

    You were absolutely right. I eventually figured it out. I had an old offshore shipping address in my address book in my name that was not linked to a US credit card (or any card). Once I linked this address’s one-click settings to a US credit card, things worked fine. Kind of obscure, but may be of help to others who have lived abroad and used amazon.com to ship internationally. I suspect having an account with same e-mail address on another international amazon site (say, .co.uk) might also cause issues.

  • David Bradley // Apr 22, 2009 at 11:57 am

    Nice one. There’s a whole blog post to write in this ;-)

  • rahul // Jun 23, 2009 at 5:26 am

    HI I got my kindle through a friend the friend had used his Card and and account to buy and putting my name. I am in Kuwait but the device says it is not registered is it compulsory to do the registration from the device can i not do it directly from the website. This whole stuff looks so complicated I wanted to surprise my wife with the wedding anniversary gift but it looks like a waste now because the call center says you will have to use it the first time I US before you can start using it outside.

  • David Bradley // Jun 23, 2009 at 9:25 am

    A Virtual Private Network (VPN) like Hotspot Shield might allow you to “pretend” you’re in the US to do a one-off registration.

  • nissoou // Dec 19, 2009 at 11:46 pm

    hi i gett my Kindle as a gift from my hasbend and i want the linguange in franche and i can not change it so can u please telle me how (sorry for the spelling) as u see my englich is bab

  • Kirsten // May 10, 2010 at 10:17 pm

    Hi

    I am based in Australia and I tried the above for purchasing outside the US via giftcard, but I found once I purchased 5-6 books the system and download via a USB, Amazon seems to pick up that I am not based in the US and blocks my account. Any suggestions?

    Kirsten

  • David Bradley // May 11, 2010 at 10:44 am

    Personally, I’d never buy a device that locked you into a single purchasing system, it’s scandalous that Amazon (and Apple) get away with this. More power to non-monopolistic businesses and open source.