Take two Amazon accounts into, the… err… the um…

By | May 27, 2019
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Do you remember those TV adverts for shampoo – “Take two bottles into the shower? Not me…”

I’m not convinced it actually made anyone buy that particular brand of shampoo (or even remember which brand it was advertising) but it has become a bit of a catchphrase.

Anyway, I’ve got a tip today that doesn’t involve two bottles of shampoo (or even one) but does involve two Amazon accounts (hence my pretty strained opening… strained, but I liked it).

Have you ever bought anything on Amazon?  I use it a lot – for all sorts of things. Books, music… bits and pieces for the home.

And I also often use it for presents.  And sometimes I use it for presents for Julie.

The problem is, since we both use the same Amazon account, if she then logs in to buy something else (which she might, because we both use it quite a bit), she might see what I’ve got her for her Birthday or whatever.

It’s even more likely at Christmas, because she’s likely to be using it for Christmas shopping too.

Then we also get an email confirming what’s ordered – which goes to an email address we both use.

Of course, it’s not too bad to say “Don’t check emails for a day or so until I’ve deleted something” because it doesn’t give much of the game away.  She’ll probably guess it’s an email receipt for a present I’ve got her, but it doesn’t tell her much about what it is… apart from that it’s something you can buy on the internet, which doesn’t narrow it down much nowadays.

(And I can always pass on any emails that matter.)

But telling her not to use Amazon to order things is a bit more difficult – it makes it a bit more obvious what I might be getting her.  (Not too obvious I suppose, but it narrows it down). And she has the Amazon app on her phone, so she’d get a notification when whatever it is I’ve ordered is posted to us.

Well, I used to try to cope by just saying “try not to look at anything on Amazon” – but then it occurred to me to just set up another Amazon account specifically for if I’m ever buying something for Julie.

It doesn’t cost anything to set up an Amazon account and it doesn’t take much doing – you just need a different email address for the emails to go to.  (You can always set up an extra outlook, yahoo or gmail email address just for this if you don’t have another one.)

That way I can order a present for her without having to say anything at all – simple.

Like many of my tips, it’s not relevant for everyone, but it just might come in handy in the future.

By the way, you might be wondering why we don’t just have separate Amazon accounts – a “his” and “hers”.  Well, we pay a little extra for “Amazon Prime”, which means we get slightly faster delivery without paying for delivery on any orders.  So we want to have the benefit of that on most of our orders. So we don’t want to use separate accounts most of the time, only when it matters.

By the way, if you’re reading this, Julie, don’t jump to any conclusions… I’ve no idea why I remembered this tip right now and it doesn’t mean I’ve been doing some secret Amazon shopping this weekend!

Right – off to enjoy the bank holiday.  Hope you have a good time too!

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