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Amazon Launches Amazon Cash, a Way To Shop Its Site Without a Bank Card (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Amazon this morning announced the launch of Amazon Cash, a new service that allows consumers to add cash to their Amazon.com balance by showing a barcode at a participating retailer, then having the cash applied immediately to their online Amazon account. The service will support adding any amount between $15 and $500 in a single transaction, Amazon says. Amazon Cash will be available at brick-and-mortar retailers across the U.S., including CVS Pharmacy, Speedway, Sheetz, Kum & Go, D&W Fresh Market, Family Fare Supermarkets, and VG's Grocery. Other stores will be added in the future. The advantage to Amazon Cash is that, as soon as you checkout at the register, the funds are available in the customer's Amazon account. There are also no fees -- something that can't be said of all the prepaid cards on the market. However, Amazon isn't selling "Amazon Cash"-branded Gift Cards at stores -- instead, customers visit Amazon.com/cash from web or mobile, or search for "amazon cash" in the Amazon mobile app to access their Amazon Cash barcode. They can also navigate to "Manage Gift Card" balance to find the Amazon Cash barcode, as it's effectively connected Amazon's gift card functionality. That same barcode can be reused any time the customer wants to add more cash to their Amazon account. It can also be added to your Wallet app on iOS or as a homescreen shortcut on Android.
Is anonymity, not ubiquity.
I can't decide which loony conspiracy theory to entertain first. That alternative payment services rising in conjunction with multinational megacorps are a nefarious effort to return to the days of making the populace dependent on company scrip, or that privatizing consumer transactions from end to end are part of a long-term effort on the part of those corporations to become nation states so slowly that nobody notices.
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Based only on this description it sounds a lot like a new featured added to the existing gift card functionality already available. So it's not "amazon cash" it's "amazon adds bar code to gift cards". So effectively this is "native content" or maybe just really poorly written. Not sure which.
"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
An easy way to reach the large # of Americans that don't actually have bank accounts or credit. Smart.
From the standpoint of the person providing the cash, it seems anonymous since you can go into a CVS and load up the account with more cash... does not have to be your account. Don't know if there's a way to load the account with cash without being able to also use it for purchases though, which would be the issue that would break that scenario.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Forget iTunes gift cards, this is way better!
Big props to Amazon for forging into uncharted territory by offering their services to a (presumed) brothel like "Kum & Go".
Seriously, what's the point? If there is any advantage to doing this, it escapes me.
The only advantages I can possibly see are just adding another chance to charge transaction fees (either directly by Amazon or by the retailers), or purely in Bezos' favor by giving him added liquidity. Why would anyone want to do that?
Amazon Cash will be available at brick-and-mortar retailers across the U.S., including CVS Pharmacy, Speedway, Sheetz, Kum & Go, D&W Fresh Market, Family Fare Supermarkets, and VG's Grocery.
Wow, out of all of those, only one exists here in Texas, and that's only because CVS bought out Eckerd a while back. I've barely heard of Sheetz (only enough to have already had a giggle at the silly name) and never heard of any of the others. Way to "across the U.S.", guys. Not that I want to use this anyhow.
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unless they waive the ~2.5% credit card charge for doing this, i don't see the point.
Well it's not cash then, it's credit.
If it were cash, having bought it at a store it would not be registered to your account until you do something to pay it in - and so you could transfer it to a third party and thence onwards into general circulation. If you can't do that, it's not cash, it's credit.
i mean, they are the biggest on the block yet you can sometimes buy things on smaller stores using cash on delivery (at least in my country)
ive never bought anything on amazon since there are no gift cards anywhere around here, and the standalone rechargable card is basically an alien concept
so theres a good chance i will never buy a single thing on amazon in my entire life, which sucks because sometimes they have nice deals, but hey it is what it is
in brazil you have the option to create a `boleto` (a barcoded invoice) for your purchase. Its only approved after you pay that boleto in your bank, lottery house, or supermarket. Its handy for everybody, those with our without credit cards.
"life is a joke, and someone is laughing at me"