Say you’re giving someone a Kobo this holiday season and planned to pay for it with a Kobo gift card. That won’t work. Kobo’s help pages say its gift cards can’t buy e-readers, accessories or pre-orders. They pay for eBooks and audiobooks, so buy the e-reader, a Kobo Clara Colour for example, with an ordinary card and give the gift card as the first batch of books.
Where a Kobo gift card works
You can spend a Kobo gift card on Kobo.com, on a Kobo e-reader, or in the Kobo Books app for Android or Windows. Kobo’s page on buying e-readers repeats the rule on its own: gift cards can’t be used to buy one.
If you read on an iPhone or iPad, Kobo documents buying a book on Kobo.com in a browser and then syncing it to the app. Apple’s reader-app rules allow access to previously purchased books. Follow the checkout options currently offered for your app and region rather than assuming every app has the same purchase buttons.
Pre-orders are excluded too. If the person you’re buying for is waiting on a new release, the card pays for it once the book is out, not before.
Combining two gift cards
Kobo’s gift card article says only one gift card can go toward each purchase. Its eGift article gives the way around that. Redeem each card on Kobo’s redeem page first, and the balance turns into store credit in the account, where several cards can add up.
Store credit doesn’t get around the e-reader rule, though. Kobo applies it to the next eBook or audiobook purchase. Any balance left on a card after checkout becomes store credit as well.
If a card or the credit doesn’t cover the whole price, Kobo charges the rest to the payment method saved in the account. We’d mention that to anyone receiving a small card, since part of the first book that costs more than the balance goes on their own card.
Sending a Kobo eGift
Kobo emails an eGift card to the recipient on the date you pick. eGift cards aren’t sold in every region. Where they aren’t, Kobo points buyers to physical cards from its retail partners.
An eGift sent to someone in another country converts to their currency at the exchange rate in effect when they claim or use it.
Passing on your old Kobo
Before giving away an old Kobo, check the backup and sign-out instructions for its software version. Books bought for your account do not become the next owner’s purchases. Signing out can remove local content and annotations, so preserve anything important before handing it over.
Kobo’s documented route is More, Settings, Accounts, then Sign out under Kobo. Read the on-screen warning before confirming and let the new owner use their own account.
If the reader has already lost notes after the 6.0 beta, do not sign out as a recovery attempt. Kobo warns that signing out, resetting or rolling back can prevent recovery of missing local content. Read the current Kobo beta recovery advice before taking that step.
