Why wouldnt you just buy a gift card with cash at these stores?
Amazon Cash
11–20 of 206 posts
Re: Amazon Cash
#12I wonder if this is meant to compete with Wal-Mart's "Pay with cash" where you order online and can go to a physical store to pay with cash and they ship it to you?
https://www.walmart.com/cp/Pay-with-Cash/1094025
https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/26/walmart-adds-pay-with-cash...
Re: Amazon Cash
#13I 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 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.
Re: Amazon Cash
#14You can also do this with Coinstar machines, which offer conversion of arbitrary amounts of cash (coinage or bills) to multiple kinds of gift cards, including Amazon, for no fee.
Re: Amazon Cash
#15> 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.
Maybe I'm being obtuse, but why would anyone want to do that? Could you not use a credit card, debit card, or gift card?
Re: Amazon Cash
#16Meanwhile it's still impossible to pay for audbile from/though amazon...
Re: Amazon Cash
#17This 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.
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.
Re: Amazon Cash
#18I 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.
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.
Re: Amazon Cash
#19This 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.
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.
I don't know about the US but here in the U.K. prepaid credit cards have all but disappeared.
Re: Amazon Cash
#20The typical view of Amazon is that they're putting B&M businesses out of it. What's the value to these stores in doing this? I feel like I'm missing something obvious here.
Getting people to physically visit their B&M store, for whatever reason, is hugely valuable.