# Why does Amazon charge me more than my wife for books I purchase?



## Rick Charles (Feb 1, 2014)

It's strange. I purchased a book from Amazon that cost $5.99 . My wife coincidentally purchased the same book that cost $2.99.
What's going on?!! Why am I charged more than my wife?
I would like to think its down to the charm of my wife, but my investigations showed the following:
- we have the same address logged on Amazon
- we have different names on Amazon, and different accounts
- my credit card is UK based, whereas hers is US based.
We both live abroad now, so our location does not seem to be the factor here.
As far as I can see it's just down to our credit card.
Would anyone know if I'm right, and isn't this illegal practice from Amazon - charging people with a foreign credit card more than others?
Any help o this much appreciated.


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## KimberlyinMN (Dec 30, 2009)

My guess is the address. 

Edited to add: I mean, the US/UK difference. You should give them a call to find out. If the support person you are first talking to can't answer the question, ask to speak to a supervisor.  When you log into Amazon, are you on the UK site? Is your wife on the US site?


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

Have you checked the current price for the book for both of you? Prices change very regularly, it's possible the price dropped or rose between the purchases and you were unlucky.

Are you both using amazon.com? What country is your address in?

As a UK resident with a UK address and credit card, I'm not always able to purchase Kindle books from amazon.com - sometimes when I go to the book page it lets me read the description etc but the "buy" button is replaced with "This book is not currently available for purchase". I'm not sure when this happens, though I suspect it's chosen by the publisher.

Let us know what the book/author is, and I'll check whether it's offered to me on amazon.com and what the price is on amazon.co.uk.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

When I was using a UK credit card, I did not get charged more when buying from the US store so I don't think it's that. I only switched to a US credit card a month ago so this is fairly recent. Did you purchase the book around the same time? If not, Morf might be right that it's just a matter of the book being on sale when your wife bought it. Go to ereaderiq.com and look up the book title - if it's being tracked, you can view a graph of the ebook's prices on Kindle to see when it's gone up or down and for how long.


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## josephdevon (Feb 6, 2014)

It's possible your wife has access to books at a higher discount than amazon and therefore can offer you a lower price. 

(I'm sorry. I so sorry. I misread the title of the thread and couldn't resist making a terrible joke. I'm sorry.   )


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

was the VAT added to your purchase?


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

The author or publisher may have changed the price on the book.  To change prices, an author need only go to Amazon's publishing website and make a few clicks.  As a result, some authors reduce prices to get their books on the bestseller lists and then raise them when the works have gained visibility again.


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