Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, Amazon has Cash On Delivery option in India.
That way you don't have to pay service tax to the credit card company for the transaction.
Seems risky for a delivery driver to be walking around with a lot of cash.
Amazon Cash
131–140 of 206 posts
Re: Amazon Cash
#132This 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.
Re: Amazon Cash
#13311) 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…
Get it tattooed on your body. Or smart watch. 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?"
Why would it be a risk? The barcode can only be used to deposit money, not withdraw.
Re: Amazon Cash
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having grown up in a lower-middle class neighborhood and lived among people who the OP was speaking about, I can assure you that they were not "unbanked" or "underbanked" because of any sort of risk profile attached to banking. They didn't have checking accounts because they were generally unable to attain one.
I don't know what a "lower middle class neighborhood" is like but when I worked at McD's quite a few of my coworkers expressed "I don't trust banks" sentiment.
Yeah, I have no idea what he's talking about.
I know that people get their kicks by pretending like Americans have a nightly ritual of peeling the toenails off the nearest poor person and grinding them up for use as seasoning, but we're stretching the limits of believability here.
Check writing became popular in the late 80s and early 90s. Checking accounts were widely available by the mid 90s. I personally know several welfare recipients who wrote checks in this era.
In present day, checking accounts are practically free (but not literally free, so it's not good enough for some people). Some institutions even pay interest on them. I've never had my credit pulled when trying to open one. Banking is a fairly competitive business here, even though there are strict federal and local regulations, but it's getting worse since the dominance of electronic payments is making bank/credit products an increasingly indispensable convenience.
And let me add that it's not just McDonald's employees who are distrustful of banks. Bitcoin was invented to help address classes of problems arising from strong centralized control of the money supply, including the government but also the [potential] chokehold from large banks. One of bitcoin's price spikes was caused by the Greek government's 2015 stoppage on withdrawals, which left millions of Greeks without the ability to access their money for weeks. [0]
While it probably makes a lot of yuppies feel better to believe otherwise, getting mired in every financial instrument that the bank promises is good for you, trusting that the government will never issue an errant levy (as a result of identity theft, for example), opening yourself to the imposition of arbitrary fees, etc., does not automatically make you an intelligent person.
[0] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/07/greece-capital-cont...
Re: Amazon Cash
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can understand a variety of cash usages over credit for fee savings, privacy and getting around transaction limits. But I can't understand why anyone would use a check cashing place. Can you not get a bank account for free in the US? Even my grocery store runs a free banking service here with no minimum - you lose out on some things like teller withdrawal, but they have ATMs everywhere and unlimited debit transacti…
> Can you not get a bank account for free in the US? If you have good credit (which usually requires a well documented reliable income, and no outstanding unmaintained debt from say, a college education or medical condition), if have the $20 or so to spend to keep the account open and in good standing, if you have the time and patience to make sure you never accidentally overdraw or under-use (so as not to get hit wi…
What about credit unions?
(Genuine question: I don't know if they are any better in that regard, or not.)
Re: Amazon Cash
#136If this is implemented as an in-store pickup location with a little terminal that allows you to buy items with cash anonymously, I'd love the concept.
So, a regular store. You just have to go to the right store instead of a 'pickup' store. Or use this but ship to a PO box.
PO Boxes and the like are not anonymous. You need to show a government ID to open one.
Re: Amazon Cash
#137If you wish you had this for your company, there is already a service that lets people do online shopping (anywhere, not just at Amazon) and pay with cash in their neighborhood: http://paynearme.com/
Re: Amazon Cash
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get it tattooed on your body. Or smart watch. 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?"
Why would it be a risk? The barcode can only be used to deposit money, not withdraw.
Yep, and also it would less useful if you had to verify you owned the account to deposit in it. The classic "sending money to college student" scenario would be problematic.
Thinking about it, this might be interesting from a community funding effort. Put the bar-code on your site, plead your case, and hope people send a donation.
Re: Amazon Cash
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Won't they miss out on all the perks of credit cards (i.e. Discover cash back rebates, airline/hotel miles, etc )
Yes–tragically, the poor never even get their SkyMiles.
Or rewards programs effectively making every purchase 1.5% cheeper than they would in cash. The unbanked and underbanked have no access to either. Another example of the "poverty tax" that many people have to pay. Your comment makes you sound kinda like an asshole.
Re: Amazon Cash
#140I 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.
Why wouldn't the store charge Amazon at least 2.9% as well for handling the transaction. How much do stores typically earn on gift cards?