Setting Up Nook accounts/purchasing ebooks

[Karen Kliegman]

I just purchased 5 NookColors. HOWEVER, our district does not allow school credit cards and we are not allowed to buy gift cards. Just looking for a solution to this problem. Can anyone share how they dealt with this?

[Joan Holopoff]

Hi Karen,

Are you able to get P-cards (essentially prepaid Visa cards?)  Barnes & Noble is working on getting the site to allow POs for ebooks, but in the interim some schools have used prepaid visa's to register their nooks and p-cards to purchase.  You can create wish lists to create a pricelist. Or you can just register them with a $10 prepaid card and load free books or borrowed books from your local library (if they have netlibrary or overdrive.

[Karen Kliegman]

Thanks, Joan. I will probably go with the Visa route. My district has to get with the times!

[Karen Kliegman]

Does this mean that the books will be paid for AFTER downloading? That's what I need.

[Peggy Hanzlik]

Our district did not have a credit card to use and I was unwilling to use my own credit card so I ran into the same problem. I ended up purchasing a $25.00 Visa card to use for the credit card that the site requires.(I was reimbursed for this)  When I bought the nook colors and kindles, I also purchased gift cards to use to download the books.

[Laurie Aldern]

An update... B&N is actively working on a solution to simplify the process for schools to purchase eBooks.  Meanwhile, there's a discussion on the Nook Users Group that offers suggestions from various educators on their methods of purchasing.

[Paula O'Rourke]

Peggy, I was told by my local Barnes & Noble sales rep that I couldn't use a prepaid credit card of any kind because it had to be connected to a physical address. So, I reluctantly had to use my own.  I was also told that they were bending the rules to allow our school to use a purchase order to buy gift cards for ebooks.  I'm hoping that whatever solution they are working on will be easier than this!  Otherwise they'll lose a lot of money from schools who will buy from other vendors who are less restrictive.

Peggy Hanzlik said:

Our district did not have a credit card to use and I was unwilling to use my own credit card so I ran into the same problem. I ended up purchasing a $25.00 Visa card to use for the credit card that the site requires.(I was reimbursed for this)  When I bought the nook colors and kindles, I also purchased gift cards to use to download the books.

[Laurie Aldern]

Paula, we have customers who have successfully used an American Express gift card to register their NOOKs.  Elsewhere on this site, someone posted that they used a Walmart Green-dot card, but I'm unfamiliar with those.

[Karen Kliegman]

I worked with our local B&N - they allowed me to use a purchase order for the exact amount of the ebooks and will then issue me a gift card. My business office is OK with this. Still haven't tried switching the account to an amex gift card. But I am going to try it. Unbelievable that it has taken 6 weeks to purchase ebooks due to all these stumbling blocks. I am going to B&N tomorrow to pick up my gift card. I'll let you all know how this works out.

[Becky Miller]

Our high school has a relationship with a community bank which agreed to issue us a credit card with a 100.00 limit. This has worked well for us.

[Paula O'Rourke]

Laurie,

Management at my local Barnes & Noble store insisted that I use a credit card with a physical address - so I used my own.  The reason given was that the prepaid credit cards are anonymous and the system would be looking for a validating address.  Finding none, the account wouldn't be functional.  However, enough members here have used the prepaid cards that I might just give it a try and see if "the system" allows it now that the account has been activated.  I'm not sure if our school will allow me to add their credit card, but I need to remove mine from the account at some point.  I'm still waiting for an updated process to purchase ebooks with a school po that satisfies school accounting requirements - any idea when that will be ready? 

Laurie Aldern said:

Paula, we have customers who have successfully used an American Express gift card to register their NOOKs.  Elsewhere on this site, someone posted that they used a Walmart Green-dot card, but I'm unfamiliar with those.

[Laurie Aldern]

Hi Paula, I replied in detail to your inbox.   You can de-select the default credit card anytime and use B&N gift cards for purchases.  Let me know how it goes.

[Joan Holopoff]

Hi Paula,

I have assisted local districts in setting up large nook accounts.  We purchased one Visa Green dot prepaid card and used that to set up all of the accounts.  The prepaid cards are functional, you just have to go to the website and register your card by entering your address. Once you have done that it is fully functional on BN.com and still has just a small finite amount on it.  You can always remove default credit cards, in fact after schools have loaded their books-some just remove that card from their account to prevent any new content from being downloaded. That is easier if you have a large group of nooks-instead of setting passwords up on each nook.
Paula O'Rourke said:

Laurie,

Management at my local Barnes & Noble store insisted that I use a credit card with a physical address - so I used my own.  The reason given was that the prepaid credit cards are anonymous and the system would be looking for a validating address.  Finding none, the account wouldn't be functional.  However, enough members here have used the prepaid cards that I might just give it a try and see if "the system" allows it now that the account has been activated.  I'm not sure if our school will allow me to add their credit card, but I need to remove mine from the account at some point.  I'm still waiting for an updated process to purchase ebooks with a school po that satisfies school accounting requirements - any idea when that will be ready? 

Laurie Aldern said:

Paula, we have customers who have successfully used an American Express gift card to register their NOOKs.  Elsewhere on this site, someone posted that they used a Walmart Green-dot card, but I'm unfamiliar with those.