Here’s a question I receive via email from time-to-time (you can always email me: michael at fkbt dot com):

I have been downloading Kindle books for quite a while, always the free ones. In fact my account is so old I don’t have a credit card attached to it anymore, so I couldn’t download a priced book even if I wanted to. I really like the freedom this gives me, in that I don’t have to worry about making a mistake, clicking the button, and getting charged for something I didn’t realize was free.

Here’s the dilemma… I now own a Kindle Fire and would like to download a game, which is not free. Is there a way to do this without using a credit card? I’m not quite sure how gift cards work. Any ideas?

An Amazon account without a credit card – I’ll bet it’s rare, but it could happen if your initial credit card expired or you got rid of it and never updated your Amazon account; seeing as how the reader above gets her Kindle material for free, I can envision a situation where someone could download the free books, games, music, and apps from the Amazon website and never pay a cent.

That doesn’t answer the question – how to purchase something from Amazon without a credit card? She can’t purchase an Amazon gift card, as it would take a credit card or a draft from an existing checking account to buy it from the Amazon website. While I am sure there are other ways to do this, three ways I can think off the top of my head to get an Amazon gift card without using an existing credit card:

1. Have someone give you an Amazon gift card.
2. Turn in your spare change to a Coinstar machine and receive an Amazon gift card in exchange for no fee (click here or type in http://smarturl.it/fagc into a web browser for my post on instructions on how to do that).
3. Most major grocery stores and other large retailers have a gift card display, where you can purchase gift cards not only to that store but to the big box retailers and online retailers such as Amazon and the iTunes store. You could take cash to one of those stores and purchase an Amazon gift card in varying denominations.

Assuming you tried one of the three methods above, you would then go online to the Amazon store, login to the My Account section, and apply the gift card code (and funds) to your Amazon account – all without having to whip out a credit card.

Can anyone think of another method? If so, please leave a comment in the comment field below.

Hope that helps!

Michael

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The following is a revision of a post I first posted about in August 2014, and I repost / update it each year before Christmas. I am always reminded of this post as I’ve got another big jar of coins I gathered at home and I’m thinking of needing some Amazon gift cards for this upcoming Christmas. If you are reading this post on the blog’s website or Facebook page, I would appreciate a “Like” or “Share” so your friends and family can be notified of this tip, also!

Kindles and other eBook readers have some costs to them: by the time you purchase the Kindle and other related accessories (cover to protect it, maybe an extra charger, etc.) can certainly add up. However, you’ve made your initial investment in the Kindle hardware, and there is enough free content out there for you to read the rest of your life without buying another book. Forever.

Forever is a long time.

While I do read a lot of the free books I talk about here in the blog I still enjoy certain authors and will purchase a lot of books. Some of them are inexpensive offerings from independent authors and some are from your mainstream “big name” authors, and I don’t care what the price is – I’ve gottagetitnow. Well, I do care what the price is but I may just wait until it gets below $10 unless it’s a new one by David Baldacci. I’m sure there are offerings by favorite authors you want to buy, too.

So, what’s my point with this post? Great question because, as in real life, I am getting long-winded.

You have a source of “free” money you can spend in the Amazon store and you probably don’t realize it as it is right under your nose. I’m talking about your loose change.

Most of you have seen the change conversion machines in grocery and other stores, and a lot of you have used them: you take in your coffee can of loose change, dump it in the hopper, the machine counts it and then spits out a receipt you take to the cash register to redeem for paper currency or a credit in the store. The one main drawback to these machines, to me, is a lot of them take a 10% or more commission / cut of whatever you brought in as their profit. For example, at an 10% commission rate you would need to bring in $11.11 worth of change to receive a $10 bill. Some people will say “so what” and accept that as a cost of doing business vs. rolling the money yourself and either turning it in to a bank (if they accept the change these days – my local branch of Bank of America does not) or taking it to a convenience store who needs it and having everyone behind you steam as you and the convenience store clerk count out a bagful of pennies.

That’s really a stupid effective interest rate for a three day loan, assuming they empty the machine every three days.

The grocery store usually splits the fee earned 50-50 with the owner of the equipment, but even if the grocery store is providing a three day loan to the equipment maker until they are reimbursed, that is one heck of a money maker (why didn’t I think of that?)!

I’m sure some of you are still wondering what my point is with this post. I’ll get to it, I just had to set the stage.

Coinstar is one of the largest providers in the USA of this equipment to stores; they are also the parent company behind the Redbox DVD rental machines you seem to see everywhere. They have partnered with Amazon to not charge you a fee for the change you bring in if you bring in a minimum of $5.00 worth of change, but they will give you a gift card eligible for 100% of the change you bring in to be used at the Amazon website; I am assuming Amazon is paying the 8% commission fee as a customer acquisition cost.

That’s actually a huge benefit for you and me as we feed our Kindle book addiction or shopping habits on Amazon.

Using my earlier example, if you brought in $11.11 worth of change and selected the Amazon gift card option, you would get a $11.11 Amazon gift card as your receipt. You would then enter the gift card details on your Amazon account on your computer (or Kindle, if the wireless feature is on with the browser pointed to the Amazon website). You can then use those funds now applied to your account and buy not only Kindle books but anything else on the Amazon website.

You also don’t have to roll the coins yourself or, if your house is like mine, have a couple of containers here and there full of spare change. You’re also not giving up any of your money as a commission just for someone to accept your spare change. I hope that’s change you can believe in (pun intended).

Coinstar has partnered with other companies in addition to Amazon to offer gift cards with no fee to you – you turn in $11.11 worth of coins, you get a $11.11 gift card to the Amazon store or to the other store(s) participating in the program. While Coinstar is one of the largest providers of this equipment to stores in the USA, they are not the only one so don’t assume your local grocery store is a Coinstar machine.

To find a Coinstar machine, you can point your web browser to https://www.coinstar.com/findakiosk and do two things from this page: (1) enter your zip code in the middle of the page to find a Coinstar machine near you, and (2) see a list of companies that have signed up for the gift card promotion by clicking “details” under the name of the store / retail location. When I just did the same for a location near me, in addition to an Amazon gift card my selections were to lots of major retailers. You can also donate the change to eight different charities vs. taking a gift card, and the charity will receive 100% of the proceeds.

My old quart-sized Mason Jar I use to hold my change is almost full of coins, so it’s off to the Coinstar machine!

Hope that helps!

Michael

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