7 ms·

Amazon Cash

49 points by charlieirish 10y ago

RoboTeddy 10y ago
What's an example situation where this is useful? (I don't doubt there is one-- just not sure what it is!) edit: OK, so you can maintain a cash balance on Amazon... is this the early stages of a plan to allow p2p payments a la Venmo?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- CobrastanJorji 10y ago
  I imagine that it's the same use case as buying gift cards for yourself with cash. If you don't have a credit card and you need to buy something online, you'd do it by buying yourself a gift card. This appears to be the same thing except they don't make you type in the gift card number.
- stvswn 10y ago
  Many people don't use banking services at all. It's pretty common to cash a paycheck and then manage a weekly or monthly budget by dividing up the cash into "accounts" -- put this much aside for rent, this goes away into my rainy day stash, this is what I'll use for groceries, etc. People do it for many reasons, but usually it's a combination of bad credit, distrust of banks, or distrust of themselves if they take advantage of credit. It could also be that it's unreported income, of course. So, with this product, Amazon gives cash-first or cash-only people a way to buy things online.
  - stvswn 10y ago
    Just occurred to me after seeing the other comments that this use case was already supported by gift cards.
    - grumblestumble 10y ago
      this is supposedly no-fee, at least for now. gift cards are quite the scam, i think the standard is a $4.99 fee for cards under $100.
      - V99 10y ago
        General purpose visa/mastercard gift cards yes, but single-company gift cards just cost face-value (or sometimes slightly discounted at places like Sam's). And some of the participating stores like CVS already sell Amazon gift cards.
      - stronglikedan 10y ago
        I think you may be thinking of Amex and Visa gift cards. AFAIK, those are the only ones that charge any sort of fee. Amazon, and other retailers, eTailers, restaurants, etc., generally don't have a fee to buy or maintain, and funds never expire.
- Brendinooo 10y ago
  Lots of people[citation needed] still like to pay for things in cash. I hang around a fair amount of Dave Ramsey fans, so my view might be skewed here. But, by way of example in another industry, I know that's one of the many sticking points for Stallman with ride sharing - taxis at least let you pay cash. This is surprising, it might not get a lot of traction, and I don't know what these partners are getting out of the deal (apart from maybe the extra candy bar purchase at the counter), but I'm tentatively glad that it exists. More ways to pay cash, particularly in the tech industry, is a good thing. EDIT: If your goal of paying cash is to cut out Visa/MasterCard/Discover/AmEx and not buy things on credit, this works. Better than a gift card too, because you don't spend $23 and feel like you have to do something with those last two dollars. But if you're looking to avoid being tracked, this has to hurt your cause.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
CobrastanJorji 10y ago
Isn't this just Amazon gift cards? Although, I wonder, if they're calling it "Amazon Cash" and you "deposit" money into an account for yourself, would it be sufficiently like a bank account that it would count as, y'know, a bank account?
- grok2 10y ago
  Feels more like a grass-roots mechanism to give interest free loans to Amazon :-)...you park money with Amazon until you buy something from them. Gift cards too seem to do the same thing, but I guess there is more cost to Amazon with Gift cards.
- tantalor 10y ago
  > by purchasing and automatically claiming an Amazon.com Gift Card to your account https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=?node=14720158011 https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=?node=14720158011 (nice URL)
losteverything 10y ago
I assume you still cant use a credit card to load... But if you can this is a fraud concern. Amazon doesn't have a brick and mortar like Walmart, et al where you can keep loading $$ on a card you purchase once. My experience with bankless adults is that they are not Amazon proficient. Perhaps this will help.
metaphorm 10y ago
I had to check that this wasn't posted on April 1. this is a form of scrip[0] as far as I can tell. I can't imagine anyone who isn't an indentured servant finding this to be something they want in their life. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip
- sailfast 10y ago
  There is a EDIT: significant portion [0] of the population of the united states that is unbanked or underbanked and not able or willing to obtain credit cards. This goes a long way into opening up a new market segment and/or allowing for cash to be used to pay for goods generally as local retailers may not carry the same diversity of products. [0]https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/ https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/
  - metaphorm 10y ago
    prepaid cash/debit cards already exist though. Amazon wants to be in that market too?
    - Nexxxeh 10y ago
      Do they not have fees attached in the US? In the UK, pre-paid cards are relatively expensive. £25 card usually costs £27+ and then there are potentially extra fees on top. I could definitely see people using this.
      - metaphorm 10y ago
        I'm not an expert on this market by any means, but I just checked what my own retail bank (Bank of America) offers [0]. It looks like there is no fee for putting money on the card and no fee for normal point of sale transactions (presumably including internet transaction). There are ways to get hit with fees while using this card, but it is also possible to use this to buy things on Amazon with no additional fees at all. [0] - https://prepaid.bankofamerica.com/CashPay/Home/Index?m=1 https://prepaid.bankofamerica.com/CashPay/Home/Index?m=1
kevin_b_er 10y ago
This is to make it easy to 'buy' things on amazon with cash, by having these brick & mortar stores take up the risk of handling cash.
ryandvm 10y ago
This seems like the exact kind of partnership Coinbase et al ought to be doing to make it easier to buy Bitcoin. That step of hooking up your checking account is surely a huge filter on their new user signups.
- stouset 10y ago
  Except for the fact that nobody in their right mind should be buying Bitcoin with the intent of using it to buy goods and services (with the possible sole exemption of goods and services you hope to attain over the internet anonymously). Not only is there no real advantage to buying anything else with Bitcoin versus a credit card, but the downsides are astronomical: forgetting a password, getting a virus, or keeping your currency on an exchange gets hacked can result in irrevocably losing every Bitcoin you own. As someone who is bullish on cryptocurrencies, I don't understand how anyone can think that their properties are suitable for use as a form of money by the general public.
  - Jenya_ 10y ago
    I would agree if you said "Bitcoin vs a debit card", but a credit card has a serious disadvantage: 2% fee on merchants. Percentage based fees are so lucrative that banks are offering all sorts of bonuses to credit card users: discounts, cashbacks, line of credit, etc.
  - ryandvm 10y ago
    I wouldn't want my paycheck in Bitcoin, but it has so far proved to be one of the few fairly well adopted technologies for handling micro-payments.
jumpkickhit 10y ago
Interesting. Are they seeing a market for drug dealers? Or maybe high school students. Paired with their Amazon lockers at 7-11 thing, suddenly condoms and pregnancy tests could be covertly ordered.

49 points by charlieirish 10y ago

What's an example situation where this is useful? (I don't doubt there is one-- just not sure what it is!) edit: OK, so you can maintain a cash balance on Amazon... is this the early stages of a plan to allow p2p payments a la Venmo?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
CobrastanJorji 10y ago
I imagine that it's the same use case as buying gift cards for yourself with cash. If you don't have a credit card and you need to buy something online, you'd do it by buying yourself a gift card. This appears to be the same thing except they don't make you type in the gift card number.
stvswn 10y ago
Many people don't use banking services at all. It's pretty common to cash a paycheck and then manage a weekly or monthly budget by dividing up the cash into "accounts" -- put this much aside for rent, this goes away into my rainy day stash, this is what I'll use for groceries, etc. People do it for many reasons, but usually it's a combination of bad credit, distrust of banks, or distrust of themselves if they take advantage of credit. It could also be that it's unreported income, of course. So, with this product, Amazon gives cash-first or cash-only people a way to buy things online.
- stvswn 10y ago
  Just occurred to me after seeing the other comments that this use case was already supported by gift cards.
  - grumblestumble 10y ago
    this is supposedly no-fee, at least for now. gift cards are quite the scam, i think the standard is a $4.99 fee for cards under $100.
    - V99 10y ago
      General purpose visa/mastercard gift cards yes, but single-company gift cards just cost face-value (or sometimes slightly discounted at places like Sam's). And some of the participating stores like CVS already sell Amazon gift cards.
    - stronglikedan 10y ago
      I think you may be thinking of Amex and Visa gift cards. AFAIK, those are the only ones that charge any sort of fee. Amazon, and other retailers, eTailers, restaurants, etc., generally don't have a fee to buy or maintain, and funds never expire.
Brendinooo 10y ago
Lots of people[citation needed] still like to pay for things in cash. I hang around a fair amount of Dave Ramsey fans, so my view might be skewed here. But, by way of example in another industry, I know that's one of the many sticking points for Stallman with ride sharing - taxis at least let you pay cash. This is surprising, it might not get a lot of traction, and I don't know what these partners are getting out of the deal (apart from maybe the extra candy bar purchase at the counter), but I'm tentatively glad that it exists. More ways to pay cash, particularly in the tech industry, is a good thing. EDIT: If your goal of paying cash is to cut out Visa/MasterCard/Discover/AmEx and not buy things on credit, this works. Better than a gift card too, because you don't spend $23 and feel like you have to do something with those last two dollars. But if you're looking to avoid being tracked, this has to hurt your cause.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

CobrastanJorji 10y ago

Isn't this just Amazon gift cards? Although, I wonder, if they're calling it "Amazon Cash" and you "deposit" money into an account for yourself, would it be sufficiently like a bank account that it would count as, y'know, a bank account?

grok2 10y ago
Feels more like a grass-roots mechanism to give interest free loans to Amazon :-)...you park money with Amazon until you buy something from them. Gift cards too seem to do the same thing, but I guess there is more cost to Amazon with Gift cards.
tantalor 10y ago
> by purchasing and automatically claiming an Amazon.com Gift Card to your account https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=?node=14720158011 https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=?node=14720158011 (nice URL)

losteverything 10y ago

I assume you still cant use a credit card to load... But if you can this is a fraud concern. Amazon doesn't have a brick and mortar like Walmart, et al where you can keep loading $$ on a card you purchase once. My experience with bankless adults is that they are not Amazon proficient. Perhaps this will help.

metaphorm 10y ago

I had to check that this wasn't posted on April 1. this is a form of scrip[0] as far as I can tell. I can't imagine anyone who isn't an indentured servant finding this to be something they want in their life. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip

sailfast 10y ago
There is a EDIT: significant portion [0] of the population of the united states that is unbanked or underbanked and not able or willing to obtain credit cards. This goes a long way into opening up a new market segment and/or allowing for cash to be used to pay for goods generally as local retailers may not carry the same diversity of products. [0]https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/ https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/
- metaphorm 10y ago
  prepaid cash/debit cards already exist though. Amazon wants to be in that market too?
  - Nexxxeh 10y ago
    Do they not have fees attached in the US? In the UK, pre-paid cards are relatively expensive. £25 card usually costs £27+ and then there are potentially extra fees on top. I could definitely see people using this.
    - metaphorm 10y ago
      I'm not an expert on this market by any means, but I just checked what my own retail bank (Bank of America) offers [0]. It looks like there is no fee for putting money on the card and no fee for normal point of sale transactions (presumably including internet transaction). There are ways to get hit with fees while using this card, but it is also possible to use this to buy things on Amazon with no additional fees at all. [0] - https://prepaid.bankofamerica.com/CashPay/Home/Index?m=1 https://prepaid.bankofamerica.com/CashPay/Home/Index?m=1

kevin_b_er 10y ago

This is to make it easy to 'buy' things on amazon with cash, by having these brick & mortar stores take up the risk of handling cash.

ryandvm 10y ago

This seems like the exact kind of partnership Coinbase et al ought to be doing to make it easier to buy Bitcoin. That step of hooking up your checking account is surely a huge filter on their new user signups.

stouset 10y ago
Except for the fact that nobody in their right mind should be buying Bitcoin with the intent of using it to buy goods and services (with the possible sole exemption of goods and services you hope to attain over the internet anonymously). Not only is there no real advantage to buying anything else with Bitcoin versus a credit card, but the downsides are astronomical: forgetting a password, getting a virus, or keeping your currency on an exchange gets hacked can result in irrevocably losing every Bitcoin you own. As someone who is bullish on cryptocurrencies, I don't understand how anyone can think that their properties are suitable for use as a form of money by the general public.
- Jenya_ 10y ago
  I would agree if you said "Bitcoin vs a debit card", but a credit card has a serious disadvantage: 2% fee on merchants. Percentage based fees are so lucrative that banks are offering all sorts of bonuses to credit card users: discounts, cashbacks, line of credit, etc.
- ryandvm 10y ago
  I wouldn't want my paycheck in Bitcoin, but it has so far proved to be one of the few fairly well adopted technologies for handling micro-payments.

jumpkickhit 10y ago

Interesting. Are they seeing a market for drug dealers? Or maybe high school students. Paired with their Amazon lockers at 7-11 thing, suddenly condoms and pregnancy tests could be covertly ordered.