{"id":337457,"date":"2017-04-03T22:27:45","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T14:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1471961"},"modified":"2017-04-03T22:27:45","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T14:27:45","slug":"amazon-launches-amazon-cash-a-way-to-shop-its-site-without-a-bank-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/amazon-launches-amazon-cash-a-way-to-shop-its-site-without-a-bank-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon launches Amazon Cash, a way to shop its site without a bank card"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Amazon this morning announced the launch of\u00a0Amazon Cash<\/a>, 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\u00a0applied immediately to their online Amazon account. The service will support adding any amount between $15 and $500 in a single transaction, Amazon says.<\/p>\n

Amazon Cash\u00a0will be available at brick-and-mortar retailers across the U.S., including\u00a0CVS Pharmacy, Speedway, Sheetz, Kum & Go, D&W Fresh Market, Family Fare Supermarkets, and VG\u2019s Grocery. Other stores will be added in the future.<\/p>\n

The service is not all that different from a similar effort by PayPal, whose PayPal My Cash Card<\/a> lets you add funds to your online PayPal account, using cash from your wallet.<\/p>\n

Like PayPal, Amazon Cash is also meant to appeal to the same general demographic who may not yet be shopping online \u2013 those who get paid in cash, don\u2019t have a bank account or debit card, and who don\u2019t use credit cards. This \u201ccash customer\u201d (the unbanked or \u201cunderbanked) accounts for around 27 percent of consumers, said a 2015 report<\/a> from the\u00a0FDIC.<\/p>\n

While they may have money to spend online at times, there isn\u2019t an easy way to do so. Until today, they would have to buy an Amazon Gift Card<\/a> in a designated amount or add cash to prepaid payment cards, to be used at checkout.<\/p>\n

More broadly, the service could appeal to anyone who just wants to deposit some cash in their Amazon.com account, without hassle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The advantage to Amazon Cash is that, as soon as you checkout at the register, the funds are available in the customer\u2019s Amazon account. There are also no fees \u2013 something that can\u2019t be said of all the prepaid cards on the market.<\/p>\n

However, unlike PayPal, Amazon isn\u2019t selling \u201cAmazon Cash\u201d-branded Gift Cards at stores \u2013 instead, customers visit Amazon.com\/cash from web or mobile, or search for \u201camazon cash\u201d in the Amazon mobile app to access their Amazon Cash barcode. They can also navigate to \u201cManage Gift Card\u201d balance to find the Amazon Cash barcode, as it\u2019s effectively connected Amazon\u2019s gift card functionality.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

To use the service, customers show their barcode to the cashier, and tell them how much cash they want to apply to their account. The cashier then scans the barcode and the customer pays with their cash. (If the customer doesn\u2019t have a smartphone, they can print out the barcode at home and bring that paper to the store instead. This is also suggested for those who have cracked screens on their phones.)<\/p>\n

The funds are available instantly and can be used anywhere on Amazon\u2019s site. Customers are alerted to this via a notification sent to their email or registered phone number with Amazon \u2013 or, if the mobile app is installed, it will be sent as a push notification.<\/p>\n

Amazon Cash is launching now in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Amazon this morning announced the launch of\u00a0Amazon 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\u00a0applied immediately to their online Amazon account. The service will support adding any amount between $15 and $500 in a single transaction, Amazon says.
\nAmazon Cash\u00a0will be available at… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-337457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}