I think many people here are missing the (probable) point of this. If you're wondering "who could use such a service?" - then this service probably isn't for you.
7% of US households are unbanked, and 20% are underbanked(1).
Many people are paid in cash, or simply cash their checks at Walmart or a check cashing place. The money never touches a bank account, and they don't have a credit card.
Paying for things with cash in similar ways is actually pretty common in other countries. When booking an airline ticket in Indonesia, I was surprised that there wasn't even an option for credit card payment - after clicking "purchase", it gave me a code and said to go to the 7/11 equivalent (which might have even been 7/11), give the counter my code and cash for the ticket.
First job I had out of college, when it came to payday, my boss handed me a paycheck with pay stub and I folded it up and put it in my pocket. He told me that I was supposed to sign the check and hand it back to him, and then he'd pay me cash for the face value of the check.
He seemed incredulous that I didn't know that immediately; he asked me if I was a trust fund kid and if this was my first job. I told him, a little defensively, that I had held several jobs previously and most of them just used direct deposit.
Apparently all of his other employees had just been taking their paychecks to a check-cashing place, and paying a fee to get cash. If he gave them cash, then they could save the fee on their end and he didn't actually have to keep money in the bank account that handled payroll, which I guess saved him some fees on his end as well.
I definitely asked some pointed questions to figure out if it was a tax dodge, though; it was kind of a sketchy business.
This is a huge deal for places like India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh where the vast majority of people do not have a bank account from which they can get a Visa or Mastercard. Probably 85%+ of the population. Those who do have basic bank accounts (we're talking about the bulk of the population whose monthly salary is less than the local currency equivalent of $400 USD) can't get credit cards or are unwilling/unable to jump through the hoops necessary to do so.
I can't help but think that there's an insidiousness behind the push to treat banking as if it's some a life fundamental.
Banks are surely convenient, but they come with tradeoffs. It's plausible that some people choose to be "unbanked" or "underbanked" because they don't like the risk profile attached to banking, and sometimes that's a totally rational decision.
If you don't have a bank account, you don't have to worry about the bank inventing new fees to assess. Last time I opened a bank account, it came with a list of conditions and said 2 out of 3 of these MUST be met each month to avoid account maintenance fees. They're things like "Use your bank debit card at least 10 times this month" and "Maintain an average daily minimum balance of $x".
Fret not, however, for the bank distributes a small chart that can be used to help you ensure that you are complying with their demands, and thus can avoid punishment both for not spending enough money in a way they like and also for not having enough money on deposit. If you don't spend and/or have enough, you are getting dinged each month with a non-trivial fee.
Without a bank account, you also don't have to worry about information security, bank policies or hiccups impeding your access to your money, federal anti-money laundering regulations that require depositors to justify "large" cash withdrawals, state-imposed garnishments and/or levies ripping your money out from under you, and so on.
So again, I have a bank account and I appreciate the convenience of banking. But I think some people choose to forgo banking rationally, and that it's not something that should be treated as a social ill.
The only real potential issue around this is the regulations that the government put into place after 9/11, which may or may not be blocking some legitimate people from being legally allowed to open a bank account. Otherwise, I think it's silly to treat this like it's some big unjustice rather than a personal choice or an issue with super crappy banks ripping off depositors (which, again, hurts the poor the most; if you have $20k in your bank account, a $30 fee is an annoyance; if you have 20 bucks in your bank account, a $30 fee is now a cascade of $30 fees, and you end up owing the bank $250).
The joblessness created by in coming automation boom is going to result in a huge increase in the gray market economy. Amazon gift cards already play a big part, and this is the next step.
Amazon skips the credit card fees. The businesses working with them probably don't have to pay Amazon the money for a few weeks, meaning they get to carry an interest-generating balance in the meantime.
If you don't spend all of the money you put on your account, then Amazon gets to hold that cash until you do, generating interest on the money held.
All the while, the customers who need this service get something they couldn't before- online shopping without a credit card, including the better selection and price competition that online shopping offers. (Yes, it's sometimes cheaper offline, but not always).
This is another round of the "Amazon vs Walmart" war. People without banks or credit cards currently shop at Walmart. Now it is much easier for them to shop at Amazon.
"Much easier than before" or "much easier than at Walmart"? I buy the former, but I doubt that many of the cash-only customers shopping at Walmart live in locations or lead lifestyles conducive to receiving regular package deliveries easily. I'm skeptical that payment logistics are their biggest barrier to Amazon shopping.
I suspect many of us on HN have a distorted view of how hassle-free online shopping is because we live in buildings or neighborhoods where packages can be left without signature with a high probability of making it to us and many of us have the luxury of working from home on the odd day when we need to sign for an expected delivery.
Unbanked use prepaid visa cards to purchase things online. This just gets rid of the "tax" incurred when buying prepaid visa cards. Stat that would be interesting to see is smart phone penetration into this group of people.
Also unbanked can purchase amazon gift cards with cash.
No, people without banks currently buy amazon gift cards and shop at amazon anyway. This is just saving them the effort of typing in the gift card code.
11) What if I do not have a smartphone and want to use Amazon Cash?
It is not necessary to have a smartphone to use Amazon Cash. You can use our Print-at-Home option by visiting www.amazon.com/cash on a desktop browser and selecting “Get your barcode”. After logging into your account, you will be given an option to print out your Amazon Cash barcode which can be brought into the store for scanning.
Nice. This solves the internet at the library / school problem for a whole group of people. Still a lot of folks with the cheap LG phones for prepaid service. If they expanded to allow bill paying it would be an interesting challenge to Walmart.
[edit: also allows the "send me your code and I'll get you some money" like many use Paypal for like parents sending money to college students]
"Would you like to buy some Itchy and Scratchy Money? Well it's money that's made just for the park. And it works just like regular money, but it's, er. fun." - Simpsons
For those do not see a value in this idea - is because simply you are living in a bubble. Lots of places in this world do not take credit cards.
In fact, in the center of the tech bubble - SF and if you happen to visit some restaurants in Chinatown, they usually have a sign says "Cash Only". CC fees are so high (even if you don't think it's that much) that those shops rather not take any CC and save themselves from BS charges.
Please please please think, design, and build a product for a world that's not in the bubble. A simple tech integration can adds huge potential value.
I agree with this sentiment. The other week I was speaking to one of the guys behind mookh.com, a Kenyan mobile payment startup and he said underbanked people needed solutions which catered to them in their current context.
I think the idea here is for amazon to allow customers to add cash balances to their amazon account without amazon incurring the 2.9% credit card transaction fee.
I think it's more about getting to the segment of customers who do not have credit cards. There's no way amazon is paying the same fee as anyone else in the world for credit card fees, they're the single biggest e-commerce site and have almost certainly negotiated some substantial deals.
For countries that are cash heavy, it's a common way to pay for online services. Some examples:
Brasil Boletos: this is interesting as there are registered and unregistered versions of Boletos. With unregistered customers can pay any amount of money to it.
Taiwan has a similar system. You take vouchers to various stores (like 7-11 or the post office), pay cash, then it'll make its way to the online company.
I'm pretty sure this is behind the Chick-fil-a app's in-app cash as well.
I find value in it because I use the app a lot (there's one next to my office) and because they give you a free sandwich every 10-12 purchases. I'm guessing that free sandwich budget comes from the savings of transaction fees.
I think it's to serve the very large and very real market of people without credit cards. I guarantee they're not paying 2.9% credit card transactions; At their bulk they've got incredible deals with every card provider. I'm also sure they're giving a percent or more to the store accepting cash for them - Similar to gift card buying models.
7% of the US, a first world nation with amazing credit services, is unbanked[1]. From that same source, nearly 20% is underbanked - As in, they still go to Check-cashing places and get cash directly, rather than getting direct-deposit.
Credit card networks (Visa/MC/Amex, not Chase/Wells Fargo/etc) rely on their fixed infrastructure to extract profits. If Amazon can disrupt that business it'd be a massive shift.
(1) The purchase process is simpler: retrieve an Amazon Cash bar code, load cash onto it at the register, it's now on your account. You can reuse the same barcode every time you want to load cash onto the account. It can be a printed piece of paper you keep in your wallet.
Previously, you had to go to a retailer with physical cards in stock, pull one off the shelf, get it activated at the register, scratch the code, and go to a computer to load the code onto your Amazon balance. If your only internet access is at a library or school, that means two trips to reload your balance.
(2) It's cheaper for Amazon. They're paying a commission to the retailer and distributor (effectively selling the cards at less than face value). Amazon Cash eliminates most of that margin, and the distributor altogether. The commission for the retailer doesn't have to be very high since none of the transactions will have credit card fees.
There's a ton of fraud with Amazon Gift Cards too. On sites like Paxful you can buy a $500 card for $250. Then people use the cards to buy other digital gift cards or items. It seems hard to stop.
Isn't this just same old gift card model but now with ability to manage balance online? Also riding the float is nothing new. There is no "interest" anymore. Opportunity cost, sure. This is a rational iteration on the status quo and looks to be step in right direction for consumer.
>To use your credit, simply purchase an eligible product from one of the following digital categories: Appstore, Kindle books, Digital Video, Digital Music, Digital Software, and Digital Video Games
This puts the risk on Amazon, so I'd be curious to see if this would be worth the no-shows. Then again their Lockers already auto-return after a few days, but I think that having "already paid" is likely a commitment device.
I am surprised that they didn't use Amazon Locker as a logical hub for adding cash credit.
Many people mentioning countries like India and Indonesia here, but even in Germany (and specifically Berlin) Cash is very much King. Even for larger purchases. It's one of surprising things for many people visiting.
> Amazon Cash transactions are non-refundable, except as required by law. Learn more from the Amazon.com Balance and Amazon.com Gift Card Terms and Conditions.
Note that the referenced T&Cs do not specifically address the circumstances under which refunds are available. For example, in certain states (CA?) you are entitled to a cash refund after the balance of an account drops below a specified threshold ($5-10?). It would be useful to know what all of these exceptions are, so that people can make an informed decision.
I see this as trying to get more sales from their app from customers who only have cash.
Now, an amazon customer without a credit card or bank account has to use a gift card, which they purchase at a store. That is a lot of hassle, IMO. Sometimes an Amazon gift card is not available (i.e. not sold at Walmart) and they purchase a visa or amex or vanilla. Those have high fees and/or very confusing sign up requirements.
There is no way to reload a used amazon gift card. Since amazon has no brick and mortar store they can't sell me a one-time-only card for future loads.
Bankless and cash only customers, that I have seen, all have smart phones. Most of the time the reference numbers used to send and receive money are texted.
So, I think having a method to load an Amazon gift card from a store with cash is their end goal. [As an aside, I tried to find out if Amazon will accept credit cards at point of sale registers for gift card loading. This is, of course, prohibited, in most places as you can't buy a Visa card with anything except cash or a debit card).
I assume they have data that says the cash-only, smartphone sophisicated cohort underuses Amazon.
Isn't this Amazon taking a page out of Jack Ma's playbook? Never stop vertically integrating. You have to outscale everyone if you want to leverage that into slimmer margins.
If taken at face value, that's what their FAQ suggests. I'm partially reposting a comment I made above, since you seem to be the only other person here who is thinking along the same lines as I am.
2) Where can I use Amazon Cash?
We have partnered with thousands of stores across the country, including CVS Pharmacy®, Speedway, Sheetz, Kum & Go, D&W Fresh Market, Family Fare Supermarkets, and VG's Grocery with more retailers coming soon. A directory of all participating stores can be found at www.amazon.com/cash.
Are they saying you can also spend your 'Amazon dollars' at those stores? Assuming the answer is 'yes', it means Amazon is looking to get a slice of that sweet sweet payment intermediary industry pie. But more importantly, they get these retailers' data for cheap and can figure out exactly where the marginal price for it lies. Think about it. These retailers might be paying Visa 2.5% transaction processing fees. Along comes Amazon who offer, say 2% fees (which might be roughly the rate they've negotiated for themselves with large payment processors).
Using CVS as an example:
Amazon start offering CVS customers varying rebates / fixed percentage discounts like: anything you buy from CVS with 'Amazon Bucks' only deducts 95% of your sales docket total from your 'Amazon not a bank account'. CVS will want their money either at point of sale or, at the very latest, through an end of day reconciliation. So in the interests of 'fraud protection' they will need to provide sales data to Amazon for those purchases. This is bad for CVS because:
- Amazon would be able to see what CVS customers are buying, for what price and in what combination. That would make it pretty easy for Amazon to gradually pick off CVS customers.
- I imagine Amazon would probably loss-lead for a while until they've become the dominant form of payment. If a large enough percentage of CVS' sales were settled in Amazon bucks (which Amazon can incentivise through rebates and discounts, hence the initial loss-lead), it puts Amazon in a position where they can 'tax' one of their retail competitors by jacking up 'transaction processing' fees.
I might be totally misunderstanding the situation here, and it's just a case of the FAQ being poorly worded. Otherwise, large retailers who sign up to this are committing a fatal strategic mistake (although I imagine the bean-counters would love it, not realising the long-term implications).
Edit: Pretty cool how it works the barcode, wonder how it is adopted. I remember using PayPal for the first time a few years back, where you used your phone number and at the time only Home Depot would have it. Buying those peanuts and ice tea.
But is there a fee? (Says no fee)
I made mistakes, can't get bank account right now. So I use pre-paid services or use PayPal accounts/Bitcoin (laughing on Bitcoin part, have yet to use it and don't have much of it).
Also use a card from my job, one of those types of cards that you get working at a factory or whatever.
It sucks when you have to pay a fee, like the PayPal Prepaid cards are pretty cool but you lose ~$5.00 a month.
I kinda wish that m-pesa thing was in the US. But why too, I seem to do more harm than good by spreading what money I have in various places.
Ahhh... read some more it's their money. Still, I wouldn't mind potentially having another place to store money. Even if it can only be used at Amazon.
> Choose to receive your barcode via text message or print-at-home. Bring this barcode into any participating store and show it to the cashier to add money to your Amazon Balance.
As a customer I don't really understand this concept. Why do I bring my barcode to one of the stores (CVS, etc.) to reload my Amazon Balance...?
The use case is that you have cash (literally folding money) in your hand and the store is the place to turn that physical cash into electronic credit in your Amazon Balance.
I get that part but my local grocery store sells Amazon gift cards in $10 to $50 denominations. You can buy these with cash just fine and there is no fee that the store charges and there is no tax. A $25 card costs $25 cash.
This is really brilliant. It's the first step in serving the unbanked or underbanked. The next step after this is to allow people to mail their checks to Amazon and have the full amount show up as a balance in their Amazon Cash account, thereby skipping the fees check cashing places charge.
[+] [-] tuna-piano|9 years ago|reply
7% of US households are unbanked, and 20% are underbanked(1).
Many people are paid in cash, or simply cash their checks at Walmart or a check cashing place. The money never touches a bank account, and they don't have a credit card.
Paying for things with cash in similar ways is actually pretty common in other countries. When booking an airline ticket in Indonesia, I was surprised that there wasn't even an option for credit card payment - after clicking "purchase", it gave me a code and said to go to the 7/11 equivalent (which might have even been 7/11), give the counter my code and cash for the ticket.
[1] - https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/
[+] [-] CocaKoala|9 years ago|reply
He seemed incredulous that I didn't know that immediately; he asked me if I was a trust fund kid and if this was my first job. I told him, a little defensively, that I had held several jobs previously and most of them just used direct deposit.
Apparently all of his other employees had just been taking their paychecks to a check-cashing place, and paying a fee to get cash. If he gave them cash, then they could save the fee on their end and he didn't actually have to keep money in the bank account that handled payroll, which I guess saved him some fees on his end as well.
I definitely asked some pointed questions to figure out if it was a tax dodge, though; it was kind of a sketchy business.
[+] [-] walrus01|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cookiecaper|9 years ago|reply
Banks are surely convenient, but they come with tradeoffs. It's plausible that some people choose to be "unbanked" or "underbanked" because they don't like the risk profile attached to banking, and sometimes that's a totally rational decision.
If you don't have a bank account, you don't have to worry about the bank inventing new fees to assess. Last time I opened a bank account, it came with a list of conditions and said 2 out of 3 of these MUST be met each month to avoid account maintenance fees. They're things like "Use your bank debit card at least 10 times this month" and "Maintain an average daily minimum balance of $x".
Fret not, however, for the bank distributes a small chart that can be used to help you ensure that you are complying with their demands, and thus can avoid punishment both for not spending enough money in a way they like and also for not having enough money on deposit. If you don't spend and/or have enough, you are getting dinged each month with a non-trivial fee.
Without a bank account, you also don't have to worry about information security, bank policies or hiccups impeding your access to your money, federal anti-money laundering regulations that require depositors to justify "large" cash withdrawals, state-imposed garnishments and/or levies ripping your money out from under you, and so on.
So again, I have a bank account and I appreciate the convenience of banking. But I think some people choose to forgo banking rationally, and that it's not something that should be treated as a social ill.
The only real potential issue around this is the regulations that the government put into place after 9/11, which may or may not be blocking some legitimate people from being legally allowed to open a bank account. Otherwise, I think it's silly to treat this like it's some big unjustice rather than a personal choice or an issue with super crappy banks ripping off depositors (which, again, hurts the poor the most; if you have $20k in your bank account, a $30 fee is an annoyance; if you have 20 bucks in your bank account, a $30 fee is now a cascade of $30 fees, and you end up owing the bank $250).
[+] [-] knowshan|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jaxn|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mabbo|9 years ago|reply
Amazon skips the credit card fees. The businesses working with them probably don't have to pay Amazon the money for a few weeks, meaning they get to carry an interest-generating balance in the meantime.
If you don't spend all of the money you put on your account, then Amazon gets to hold that cash until you do, generating interest on the money held.
All the while, the customers who need this service get something they couldn't before- online shopping without a credit card, including the better selection and price competition that online shopping offers. (Yes, it's sometimes cheaper offline, but not always).
[+] [-] wscott|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skookum|9 years ago|reply
I suspect many of us on HN have a distorted view of how hassle-free online shopping is because we live in buildings or neighborhoods where packages can be left without signature with a high probability of making it to us and many of us have the luxury of working from home on the odd day when we need to sign for an expected delivery.
[+] [-] adrr|9 years ago|reply
Also unbanked can purchase amazon gift cards with cash.
[+] [-] xanderstrike|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] protomyth|9 years ago|reply
It is not necessary to have a smartphone to use Amazon Cash. You can use our Print-at-Home option by visiting www.amazon.com/cash on a desktop browser and selecting “Get your barcode”. After logging into your account, you will be given an option to print out your Amazon Cash barcode which can be brought into the store for scanning.
Nice. This solves the internet at the library / school problem for a whole group of people. Still a lot of folks with the cheap LG phones for prepaid service. If they expanded to allow bill paying it would be an interesting challenge to Walmart.
[edit: also allows the "send me your code and I'll get you some money" like many use Paypal for like parents sending money to college students]
[+] [-] ge96|9 years ago|reply
I wonder though if a paper copy is a vulnerability. Do they ask to verify your ownership of the bar code for example "What is your pin?"
[+] [-] fluxem|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] martin-adams|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xbeta|9 years ago|reply
In fact, in the center of the tech bubble - SF and if you happen to visit some restaurants in Chinatown, they usually have a sign says "Cash Only". CC fees are so high (even if you don't think it's that much) that those shops rather not take any CC and save themselves from BS charges.
Please please please think, design, and build a product for a world that's not in the bubble. A simple tech integration can adds huge potential value.
[+] [-] carlmungz|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kt9|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chillydawg|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kyrra|9 years ago|reply
Brasil Boletos: this is interesting as there are registered and unregistered versions of Boletos. With unregistered customers can pay any amount of money to it.
Taiwan has a similar system. You take vouchers to various stores (like 7-11 or the post office), pay cash, then it'll make its way to the online company.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleto
[+] [-] creaghpatr|9 years ago|reply
I find value in it because I use the app a lot (there's one next to my office) and because they give you a free sandwich every 10-12 purchases. I'm guessing that free sandwich budget comes from the savings of transaction fees.
[+] [-] GauntletWizard|9 years ago|reply
7% of the US, a first world nation with amazing credit services, is unbanked[1]. From that same source, nearly 20% is underbanked - As in, they still go to Check-cashing places and get cash directly, rather than getting direct-deposit.
[1]http://fortune.com/2016/09/08/unbanked-americans-fdic/
[+] [-] hectorr|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seanalltogether|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jccalhoun|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aluhut|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mahyarm|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dangrossman|9 years ago|reply
(1) The purchase process is simpler: retrieve an Amazon Cash bar code, load cash onto it at the register, it's now on your account. You can reuse the same barcode every time you want to load cash onto the account. It can be a printed piece of paper you keep in your wallet.
Previously, you had to go to a retailer with physical cards in stock, pull one off the shelf, get it activated at the register, scratch the code, and go to a computer to load the code onto your Amazon balance. If your only internet access is at a library or school, that means two trips to reload your balance.
(2) It's cheaper for Amazon. They're paying a commission to the retailer and distributor (effectively selling the cards at less than face value). Amazon Cash eliminates most of that margin, and the distributor altogether. The commission for the retailer doesn't have to be very high since none of the transactions will have credit card fees.
[+] [-] redial|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jhenkens|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rsucj|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] InclinedPlane|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bahmboo|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] magikbum|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pharrlax|9 years ago|reply
>To use your credit, simply purchase an eligible product from one of the following digital categories: Appstore, Kindle books, Digital Video, Digital Music, Digital Software, and Digital Video Games
No physical goods.
[+] [-] webkike|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eximius|9 years ago|reply
You just have to go to the right store instead of a 'pickup' store.
Or use this but ship to a PO box.
[+] [-] sf_rob|9 years ago|reply
I am surprised that they didn't use Amazon Locker as a logical hub for adding cash credit.
[+] [-] tnolet|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gnicholas|9 years ago|reply
Note that the referenced T&Cs do not specifically address the circumstances under which refunds are available. For example, in certain states (CA?) you are entitled to a cash refund after the balance of an account drops below a specified threshold ($5-10?). It would be useful to know what all of these exceptions are, so that people can make an informed decision.
[+] [-] losteverything|9 years ago|reply
Now, an amazon customer without a credit card or bank account has to use a gift card, which they purchase at a store. That is a lot of hassle, IMO. Sometimes an Amazon gift card is not available (i.e. not sold at Walmart) and they purchase a visa or amex or vanilla. Those have high fees and/or very confusing sign up requirements.
There is no way to reload a used amazon gift card. Since amazon has no brick and mortar store they can't sell me a one-time-only card for future loads.
Bankless and cash only customers, that I have seen, all have smart phones. Most of the time the reference numbers used to send and receive money are texted.
So, I think having a method to load an Amazon gift card from a store with cash is their end goal. [As an aside, I tried to find out if Amazon will accept credit cards at point of sale registers for gift card loading. This is, of course, prohibited, in most places as you can't buy a Visa card with anything except cash or a debit card).
I assume they have data that says the cash-only, smartphone sophisicated cohort underuses Amazon.
[+] [-] ethbro|9 years ago|reply
https://techcrunch.com/2015/06/25/alibaba-digital-bank-myban...
[+] [-] spangry|9 years ago|reply
2) Where can I use Amazon Cash?
We have partnered with thousands of stores across the country, including CVS Pharmacy®, Speedway, Sheetz, Kum & Go, D&W Fresh Market, Family Fare Supermarkets, and VG's Grocery with more retailers coming soon. A directory of all participating stores can be found at www.amazon.com/cash.
Are they saying you can also spend your 'Amazon dollars' at those stores? Assuming the answer is 'yes', it means Amazon is looking to get a slice of that sweet sweet payment intermediary industry pie. But more importantly, they get these retailers' data for cheap and can figure out exactly where the marginal price for it lies. Think about it. These retailers might be paying Visa 2.5% transaction processing fees. Along comes Amazon who offer, say 2% fees (which might be roughly the rate they've negotiated for themselves with large payment processors).
Using CVS as an example:
Amazon start offering CVS customers varying rebates / fixed percentage discounts like: anything you buy from CVS with 'Amazon Bucks' only deducts 95% of your sales docket total from your 'Amazon not a bank account'. CVS will want their money either at point of sale or, at the very latest, through an end of day reconciliation. So in the interests of 'fraud protection' they will need to provide sales data to Amazon for those purchases. This is bad for CVS because:
- Amazon would be able to see what CVS customers are buying, for what price and in what combination. That would make it pretty easy for Amazon to gradually pick off CVS customers.
- I imagine Amazon would probably loss-lead for a while until they've become the dominant form of payment. If a large enough percentage of CVS' sales were settled in Amazon bucks (which Amazon can incentivise through rebates and discounts, hence the initial loss-lead), it puts Amazon in a position where they can 'tax' one of their retail competitors by jacking up 'transaction processing' fees.
I might be totally misunderstanding the situation here, and it's just a case of the FAQ being poorly worded. Otherwise, large retailers who sign up to this are committing a fatal strategic mistake (although I imagine the bean-counters would love it, not realising the long-term implications).
[+] [-] ge96|9 years ago|reply
But is there a fee? (Says no fee)
I made mistakes, can't get bank account right now. So I use pre-paid services or use PayPal accounts/Bitcoin (laughing on Bitcoin part, have yet to use it and don't have much of it).
Also use a card from my job, one of those types of cards that you get working at a factory or whatever.
It sucks when you have to pay a fee, like the PayPal Prepaid cards are pretty cool but you lose ~$5.00 a month.
I kinda wish that m-pesa thing was in the US. But why too, I seem to do more harm than good by spreading what money I have in various places.
Ahhh... read some more it's their money. Still, I wouldn't mind potentially having another place to store money. Even if it can only be used at Amazon.
[+] [-] huangc10|9 years ago|reply
As a customer I don't really understand this concept. Why do I bring my barcode to one of the stores (CVS, etc.) to reload my Amazon Balance...?
[+] [-] scosman|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sokoloff|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codazoda|9 years ago|reply
Dunno if this varies by area.
[+] [-] jedberg|9 years ago|reply