Is it possible to switch Amazon Prime account when moving to France from US?
Certain content is geo-restricted
Certain online services connected to your Prime account can be transferred to your new location
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Reader Question: My family and I are planning to move to France at the end of the year. We order a lot of things on Amazon Prime, and I have a library of books for my Kindle. Can we just transfer our account over when we move to France?
Moving between countries sometimes means losing access to certain location-restricted content, applications, subscriptions and digital catalogues.
In terms of Amazon accounts, they can be transferred to a new location but not all of the content can be moved.
You have to update your location (Amazon account country) in your account settings once you have moved to France – information on how to do so is provided here.
Once you have done this, you will be prompted to transfer aspects of your digital library to the new country.
This includes e-books with Amazon Kindle (and you will also have access to the French Kindle store once you have moved your country to France) as well as Amazon Music and files on your Amazon Drive.
If you have an Amazon Prime video membership, this is also transferred, although you will lose access to certain films and shows not available in France. Some other media not licenced for the service in the US will then become viewable.
However, your actual Amazon Prime membership (along with Unlimited subscriptions to Kindle and Music, including content you have ‘borrowed’) cannot be transferred.
You must cancel these subscriptions, allow them to expire, and then sign up again from your new country.
Make sure to update your billing address as well as all delivery information.
There are no restrictions on using a non-French bank card for the account, although it may be beneficial to use a French card once you have one as this will eliminate any potential currency conversion fees (your new account will be in euros).
In many other cases, you do not need a French bank card to use services (such as in the French App store, for example).
Similar for other services
For other international streaming services such as Netflix, you can still log in from France, although you will see a different catalogue of content.
Again, you should update your billing address to your new address if this is your main location, to avoid any issues.
You may be asked to confirm you have logged in to the account at a new location through a text or email as a precautionary measure from the streaming service to prevent hackers and account sharing.
