iPad Migrating Kindle content between countries

[49Kat]

Hi!
I'm asking on the Apple forum because my question is specific to the Kindle app for iOS.

It also took a 20 minute phone call with Amazon to get an answer to my question, but after the call was finished, I realized there was something I forgot to ask.

I am a Canadian snowbird and I have been going back and forth to the U.S. for a few years, buying Kindle content on Amazon.com and changing my country and billing in my device management settings acccording to where I am physically. I have been an Amazon.ca customer longer than that and use the same email for both .ca and .com. I've purchased physical items from both over the years, from .ca or .com, depending on where I am. Given the currency exchange rate, and the fact that I am with increasing frequency seeing eBooks prices with the same NUMBERS in both currencies, it is looking like it makes more sense economically to migrate to Amazon.ca. After 20 minutes and 2 Amazon representatives and me having to say. "NO! Do NOT start the transfer, I am just asking a question right now!"....I learned that my Kindle content on my iPad would have to be redownloaded after the migration. For me, that's 1.75 Gb over a satellite internet connection that has become increasingly miserable to deal with. (Yes, I DO want my entire library on my iPad. ).

I should have just asked here in the first place, lol!

My question now...I have collections, would all of those in the iPad be wiped out as well? I'm doing this for not thinking to ask the Amazon rep while I had him on the phone, but I thought someone here may have gone through this and you might know.

Thanks for any responses.

[ATDrake]

I can't comment on the collections issue, but as for this aspect of your post:

Originally Posted by 49Kat

Given the currency exchange rate, and the fact that I am with increasing frequency seeing eBooks prices with the same NUMBERS in both currencies, it is looking like it makes more sense economically to migrate to Amazon.ca.

As far as numbers go, when your .com address is set to Canada, you'll see (and get charged) the Canadian prices in US dollar equivalent. E.g. a $0.99 CAD cent book in the .ca store is $0.72 USD for me right now at .com. And there are certain advantages to keeping one's account at .com, like being able to purchase giftable copies of eBooks (useful as a save-for-later in cases where not sure if want, since the redeemer can opt to exchange the gift code for the same amount of store credit as originally paid) and pay with USD gift card certificates which are reasonably readily obtainable via promotions and those fill-out-a-survey sites (pretty much how I buy all my relatively few paid Kindle books, from cashing in my Swagbucks). So it may work out better to stay with .com, but just keep your address set to Canada.

OTOH, if you're paying directly by credit card or the like and get hit by foreign currency exchange rate fees or whatever, or want to buy French-language books (most of the Francophone publishers are available via .ca, but not .com, for some weird reason), then an actual move to .ca is probably better. (You probably already know this, but apparently there's no way to move back.)

[49Kat]

Thank you. I received an informational email about migrating. According to that email, I would be able to change back from .ca to .com if I have a U.S. billing address. We have a U.S. bank account and we use a credit card from there when we are in the U.S. and we have a physical address there. In years past, I just switched back to my Canadian card when we returned to Canada, but now that is making a noticeable difference. We've been using our Canadian physical address as a billing address for the U.S. bank and credit card, but I think we'll change that. It's causing a few hassles with online shopping, and we have good friends monitoring our mailbox in the U.S., so they would let us know about any urgent looking mail from the bank.

Having to redownload an entire library makes switching back and forth not so desirable, anyway. Losing collections would add to the annoyance.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by 49Kat

I received an informational email about migrating. According to that email, I would be able to change back from .ca to .com if I have a U.S. billing address.

Glad to hear that they've changed that. IIRC, a few years ago, some MR members switched their Canada-based Kindle accounts from .com to .ca once the option became available, but regretted it and complained about not being able to switch back. Apparently the store selection was different with some books not showing up at .ca and a few features like Active Content were missing at the time.

Originally Posted by 49Kat

In years past, I just switched back to my Canadian card when we returned to Canada, but now that is making a noticeable difference.

Yeah, given everything else you've mentioned, that does sound like migrating rather than switching is probably the more economical option, especially if you buy a lot of Kindle books and stick with it long-term. (I do most of my shopping at Kobo, so my Amazon.com purchases can easily fit into the low amount of USD gift cards I cash in via Swagbucks every few months.)

Hopefully someone has experience with the collections thing and can tell you about it. (Although it's probably not relevant, but ISTR that collections for Amazon's own books at least are stored and backed up to your account, and become available for your other devices? At least that's what happened when I created collections on my K2 and did a sync, and later saw them available on a new Kindle for Mac install. So the same thing might apply if they keep all your user preference-type info while migrating.)