Amazon Is Killing Off Its Free P2P Money-Transfer Service WebPay On October 13

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Amazon Is Killing Off Its Free P2P Money-Transfer Service WebPay On October 13

Posted by Soulskill on Friday September 12, 2014 @06:18PM from the internet-impermanence dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Amazon WebPay, a free online money-transfer service, is shutting down October 13, 2014. This means you'll no longer be able to send, receive, or request money using just your email address and the Amazon Payments webpage. There were hints back in June that the service would be going away soon. Amazon sent out an email this week to active Amazon Payments account users notifying them it is pulling the plug.

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Columbus day? by CaptQuark · 2014-09-12 18:24 · Score: 1

I guess Amazon is closing its banking service for the Columbus Day holiday and deciding to not open again.

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The what? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-12 18:27 · Score: 5, Insightful

Poorly advertised. Never heard of it.
1. Re:The what? by SumDog · 2014-09-13 02:40 · Score: 1
  
  Same here. WTF? How the fuck does someone like Amazon fail at a PayPal competitor?
2. Re:The what? by Redbehrend · 2014-09-13 11:25 · Score: 1
  
  It was a google like test, they never wanted the masses to use it.
Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by WarJolt · 2014-09-12 18:39 · Score: 1

I can send money from my GMail account. Why would I used amazon? Smart move on amazons part.
1. Re:Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by _merlin · 2014-09-12 21:44 · Score: 2
  
  I can send money from my GMail account.
  Well I don't know whether the Amazon one worked outside the US, but the Google one definitely doesn't. But given a choice between Google and Amazon, I'd take Amazon. I find them slightly less intrusive and pervasive.
2. Re:Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-12 21:45 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  the world is moving to bitcoin, get with the schedule
3. Re:Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by timurrodrigez4 · 2014-09-12 23:38 · Score: 1
  
  +1 bitcoin takes the world fast ;)
  
  --
  Hottest HD Sex at hdsex18.xxx
4. Re:Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by jonbryce · 2014-09-13 00:46 · Score: 1
  
  Which is free in the same way that sending a Western Union transfer reference to someone is free. You still need to get the money to and from the Bitcoin exchange.
5. Re:Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · 2014-09-13 02:52 · Score: 1
  
  I dipped my toes into the Bitcoin world, just to say I'd done it... My $0.1245 worth of bitcoin is now worth $0.0955 Yeah, that's a lot better than keeping my money in a bank...
  
  --
  A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
6. Re:Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by aztracker1 · 2014-09-13 04:02 · Score: 2
  
  Which is true in the same way that you need to use an exchange when going to/from USD and GBP or Yen.... If you get paid in BTC, and buy stuff in BTC, then you don't need an exchange.
  
  --
  Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
7. Re:Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by aztracker1 · 2014-09-13 04:06 · Score: 1
  
  I just wish i could get the 7 bitcoins back I lost early on... ran a miner really early on to play with it... didn't get much use, and deleted the software and wallet... if I sold at a peak to USD, would have a bit of cash. I didn't think they'd be as successful as they have. When I see a traditional bank offering exchange rates, I'll convert.
  
  --
  Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
8. Re:Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by TeknoHog · 2014-09-13 12:10 · Score: 1
  
  I dipped my toes into the Bitcoin world, just to say I'd done it... My $0.1245 worth of bitcoin is now worth $0.0955 Yeah, that's a lot better than keeping my money in a bank...
  It's a good thing they value it in dollars, because the value of a dollar never changes, and that's how we know our money is safe in a bank.
  
  --
  Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
9. Re:Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-13 14:08 · Score: 0
  
  Your Basic Bitch Faggot.
Even smarter by smittyoneeach · 2014-09-12 20:36 · Score: 1

Getting /. to advertise the service, which can be sun-rised (is that a word?) on a whim.

--
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
1. Re:Even smarter by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-12 21:13 · Score: 1
  
  Don't flatter yourselves.
2. Re:Even smarter by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-12 22:00 · Score: 0
  
  People advertise on reddit these days. Slashdot and slashdot effect died a decade ago.
And.... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-12 20:57 · Score: 2, Insightful

Nothing of value was lost.
1. Re:And.... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-13 00:04 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  For all you people that haven't heard of it or believe it had no value you are wrong. You could transfer money to your Amazon Payments account through your credit card and then transfer it back to your bank account to meet minimum spend requirements on credit cards and get free miles or cashback.
2. Re:And.... by olsmeister · 2014-09-13 00:36 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Maybe that's why they're shutting it down. Nothing is really free, someone has to pay for your free miles or cashback, and in this case it would be Amazon through merchant fees to the credit card companies. If enough people did this, they'd be losing money more quickly than they could make it.
3. Re:And.... by rossdee · 2014-09-13 00:43 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  "For all you people that haven't heard of it or believe it had no value you are wrong."
  So people that hadn't heard of it are wrong ?
  I hadn't heard of it, and I have been an Amazon Prime member for a few years...
4. Re:And.... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-13 04:30 · Score: 0
  
  That's exactly why they're shutting it down. Occasional users didn't see much point in it, and big users were mostly scammers.
5. Re:And.... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-13 06:18 · Score: 0
  
  Exactly. It was worth over $500/year to me. At a minimum, the wife and I would each send each other $1000 on our 2% cash back card, so $480 if I had nothing better. But several times a year, one or the other of us were using it to meet the spending requirements to get bonuses in the range of $300-$750 each. Or at one point, before Kroger stopped letting the variable load gift cards count for 4x fuel points, I'd buy two $500 gift cards ($12 fee total), getting 3% cash back ($30) from my credit card, save $35 off each of my next 4 gas fill-ups, and then I'd just cash the gift cards out on amazon payment. The services was incredibly useful.
6. Re:And.... by Zontar+The+Mindless · 2014-09-13 06:43 · Score: 1
  
  Gosh. I can't find the word "cashback" in any dictionary.
  I'm guessing it's something made up by non-native speakers who've not yet learnt "rebate" or "refund"?
  
  --
  Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
7. Re:And.... by bill_mcgonigle · 2014-09-13 15:25 · Score: 1
  
  I hadn't heard of it, and I have been an Amazon Prime member for a few years...
  Same here, which means they never advertised it on their own site, which means they didn't want it to succeed for some reason.
  Lord knows they've have no problem advertising the Fire Phone or various Kindles over the years.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
8. Re:And.... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-13 20:40 · Score: 0
  
  It's made up by advertisers who are worried that people won't understand those words - just another example of the dumbing-down of society
Woo-hoo! Three day weekend! by wonkey_monkey · 2014-09-12 22:23 · Score: 2

Amazon WebPay [...] is shutting down October 13, 2014.
Awesome. Could they shut down a few more days between now and Christmas? I need the time off.

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
will be replaced by Bitcoin, Litecoin or even PPC by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-13 00:42 · Score: 0

Will this be replaced by Bitcoin, Litecoin or even PPC?
Guess I'll have to use google wallet or paypal by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-13 02:14 · Score: 0

I trust amazon FAR more than google
Re:will be replaced by Bitcoin, Litecoin or even P by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-13 04:17 · Score: 0

I hope they use PPC because it requires much less energy to keep it going thank to so called "proof of stake".
Re:will be replaced by Bitcoin, Litecoin or even P by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-13 04:47 · Score: 0

Dogecoin.
Money transfer services by freeze128 · 2014-09-13 05:24 · Score: 1

A few years ago, my primary bank (Wells Fargo) had a feature where you could log into your ebanking website and transfer money from your account to another account holder at the same bank. There was no fee for this service and it worked well. Recently, I checked again, and they have replaced that service with a "Transfer money to anyone with an email address" service. First you must "sign up". I don't know why I need to involve another party to transfer money to someone else at the same bank.....
P2P!? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-13 05:24 · Score: 0

How are Amazon able to shut it down if the system is peer-to-peer. Are they the only peer left? Are we just using P2P these days as a buzzword meaning "on the internet"?
from *ANY* bitcoin exchange by DrYak · 2014-09-14 10:42 · Score: 1

You still need to get the money to and from the Bitcoin exchange.
...to and from a bitcoin exchange. any bitcoin exchange.
Unlike Western Union that you mention (where you're basically stuck with only one single service provider per system), bitcoin leaves you with full freedom of choice of how to process the BTCs you received (coin processor, classical exchange, face-2-face meeting like localbitcoin, or simply keeping them in BTC form to re-use them (just watchout for currently big market fluctuations)).
And your choice of method at your end has no influence at what I chose at my end.
I, the client, could be using localbitcoin, and you the merchant could be using coinbase.
So Paypal, Western Union, or TFA's WebPay aren't directly comparable to bitcoin transactions.
SEPA are more similar: any SEPA-enabled bank in Europe can send amounts of money to any other SEPA bank.
I might be using a Swiss bank, your bank might be German. But both of us can pick any account in any bank as endpoint, as long as both banks support SEPA.
(And bitcoin are a bit faster than SEPA payment).
That's some improvement compared to the current situation of payments over internet, where you're basically forced to have a PayPal account, and have a MasterCard/Visa credit card, just because that's what most of the web is using.

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