Amazon's Australian Kindle e-book store can offer better pricing, but check the fine print.

Next time you shop for e-books at Amazon.com you might be asked if you want to switch to the Australian store. It's not a permanent switch, you have the option to change it back in your account settings.

Regional differences: Amazon.com.au, left, and Amazon.com.

At first glance, Amazon's Australian pricing seems on par with the US store. Tim Winton's upcoming novel Eyrie costs $US16.13 on pre-order at amazon.com or $A17.99 at amazon.com.au – consistent with the 90 cent exchange rate.

If your Amazon account is linked to your Australian credit card then your bank converts US amounts into Australian dollars, but it probably isn't as generous and you might only get 87 US cents to the dollar. On top of this, there's often a "foreign transaction fee" of about 3 per cent. The final price will probably be about $A19.12 – more expensive than if you'd switched to the Australian store.