Pages:
Author

Topic: Amazon is going to accept bitcoin in the near future (Read 6812 times)

legendary
Activity: 3598
Merit: 2386
Viva Ut Vivas
I prefer to use Gyft since they give me Amazon Giftcard. When I purchase something, I have more privacy and more control. Already bought three Amazon Giftcards and one Ebay Giftcard from them. Used those Amazon Giftcard to purchased 2 items from Amazon.com.

Yes, I use egifter and gyft for ebay purchases.

Being able to buy things on Amazon and eBay with bitcoins covers a whole lot of things I would ever want to buy on the Internet.
legendary
Activity: 1484
Merit: 1001
Personal Text Space Not For Sale
Ahh. I will contact their customer support and ask about Bitcoin integration soon. Hopefully my question will lead to a more faster "Bitcoin accepted Amazon.com". Smiley.

I prefer using purse.io to get 20-35% off of my Amazon purchases (can do up to 50% but have never had such an order filled).

Just bought a laptop on Amazon (Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon 20A70037US):
List Price:    $2,099.00
Price:    $1,499.99 & FREE Shipping
You Save:    $599.01


Purse Price
$1229.4

Paid with bitcoins

I prefer to use Gyft since they give me Amazon Giftcard. When I purchase something, I have more privacy and more control. Already bought three Amazon Giftcards and one Ebay Giftcard from them. Used those Amazon Giftcard to purchased 2 items from Amazon.com.
legendary
Activity: 3598
Merit: 2386
Viva Ut Vivas
I prefer using purse.io to get 20-35% off of my Amazon purchases (can do up to 50% but have never had such an order filled).

Just bought a laptop on Amazon (Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon 20A70037US):
List Price:    $2,099.00
Price:    $1,499.99 & FREE Shipping
You Save:    $599.01


Purse Price
$1229.4

Paid with bitcoins
full member
Activity: 167
Merit: 100
While it would be great to use bitcoin on amazon. I wouldn't do it when you can use bitcoin at gyft.com/ egifter.com and get 3% cashback for buying amazon e-giftcards.

hero member
Activity: 994
Merit: 500
If Amazon started accepting Bitcoin payments then that would make Bitcoin much more useful as a currency. I would happily purchase on amazon if it was directly with Bitcoin, because I would much rather use Bitcoin to make payments instead of some other service like Paypal for example.
I'm pretty sure Amazon has this on the agenda. Give them another year Wink
legendary
Activity: 3528
Merit: 9525
#1 VIP Crypto Casino
I can not see this happening, it is not a large companies nature to change their business model. What does amazon have to benefit in accepting a new way for payments? This would hinder their own gift cards.
That support tech told you this to not have anymore discussion about it.

Another increasing group of potential customers, that's what they have to gain. They can still convert it to fiat immediately.
hero member
Activity: 672
Merit: 501

So what are the benefits? For me (the customer) the best benefit is privacy. Each time you use your credit card online you expose everything needed to steal more of your money. And you give this information to the business, the payment processor, and anyone else who is observing the transaction, hacking the server,... who knows? I don't use anything except bitcoin anymore online. In brick-n-mortar stores I still have to use the CC, and in the last year alone I have been issued new cards three times due to breaches. 

For the business the greatest advantage is money. They lose 3% on each transaction with a credit card. If they use a bitcoin payment processor they have to give up between 0%-1%.  They also like getting out of the liability of holding peoples CC information and the low risk of accepting what is essentially a cash transaction.  All these advantages and the extremely low bar to entry make me think they will have to accept BTC at some point. They have already lost my business and won't get it back until they take bitcoin.


It's the credit card companies who pick up the bill for data breaches. It does suck but I don't think people can be bothered to think it through enough for it to be a problem for them.

I seriously doubt Amazon pays that percentage on cards. The EU is proposing a 0.2% cap on card charges. The US does seem to be in the stone age when it comes to financial stuff so maybe they do pay more.

Irreversibility and instant funding are definitely huge boons for retailers. Still gotta figure out how to make it appeal for their customers. I don't think margins are big enough to offer the sexiest discounts.

First, you do not realize the damage to the name if there is a breach. How do you think target did as an example. No one hears about the CC company that got hacked, its the company that did, be it Amazon, Shopko, Wendys... ect.

Another thing, I can bet Amazon does pay high per transaction fee to the card companies or have a "bulk" discount, but its gonna be at least 2%. The reason why you will never know exactly is because they are bound to terms I am sure where they can not publicly discuss it.
If it was that low, they would be able to discuss it because it would make the cc companies look great.
A cap will do nothing, cept now the card companies will shift the cost to something else, interest, annual fees... there is a whole lotta stuff they can raise in order to offset the cap loss.
sr. member
Activity: 574
Merit: 296
Bitcoin isn't a bubble. It's the pin!
If Amazon started accepting Bitcoin payments then that would make Bitcoin much more useful as a currency. I would happily purchase on amazon if it was directly with Bitcoin, because I would much rather use Bitcoin to make payments instead of some other service like Paypal for example.
legendary
Activity: 1806
Merit: 1164
Contacted their customer support today with the following message:

Quote
Hi!

I can only pay with bitcoins but you don't accept that payment method. I also cannot
exchange the bitcoins for a gift card on a 3rd party web service because none of
them is currently online. Please integrate with bitpay or start accepting bitcoin
payments directly so that I can order from your site.

Got this answer:

Quote
Hello,

I'm sorry if we did not meet your expectations. Unfortunately, we don't process Bit
Coins. However, I sent your inquiry and suggestion to the higher managements since
this is not the first suggestion from a customer. We do hope that in the near
future, we may be able to provide payments in all kind of payment methods.

You can already use bitcoin to buy at Amazon using Purse.io. I outlined the procedure at how to use Purse.io to buy From Amazon Using bitcoin.
sr. member
Activity: 246
Merit: 250
I buy a lot of things from Amazon. I'd switch to paying with Bitcoin if they did.
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
I can not see this happening, it is not a large companies nature to change their business model. What does amazon have to benefit in accepting a new way for payments? This would hinder their own gift cards.
That support tech told you this to not have anymore discussion about it.
sr. member
Activity: 350
Merit: 250
Amazon people are lethargic when it comes to the execution of the suggestions. Amazon doesn't even provide proper Paypal support. About Bitcoin , i think it will take close to 5 years to get into its payment options list. But then again , we should never stop hoping for the best.Bitcoin and Amazon will make an efficient combination because they both are customer friendly.
hero member
Activity: 500
Merit: 500
i had once sent same kind of email to them for including paypal account. paypal being one of the most trusted online payment system, amazon still doesnt have paypal. i doubt that near they keep telling to people. amazon will only start accepting bits if there is some profit to them. untill then use other payment options :p

Amazon probably doesn't accept Paypal because of how easy it is to commit fraud with it and do charegbacks, not to mention very high fees. I mean, if people have a paypal account then 99% of people who use it have a debit or credit card linked so why not just use your card directly on amazon?
sr. member
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
i had once sent same kind of email to them for including paypal account. paypal being one of the most trusted online payment system, amazon still doesnt have paypal. i doubt that near they keep telling to people. amazon will only start accepting bits if there is some profit to them. untill then use other payment options :p
legendary
Activity: 2590
Merit: 3008
Welt Am Draht

I bet your right that Amazon is so huge that they have negotiated a better rate. But it can't be much better because they do have to pay for data breaches, not directly, but any business model requires someone else to pay other than the CC issuer. After all, this is not a public service so the issuer must pass on the insurance loss to the customer (in this case Amazon). The standard fee charged by MasterCard/Visa is 3%. I think businesses in America would love to only pay 0.2%, That is the lowest I have heard. Perhaps it is because we still use the extremely unsafe "magnetic stripe" cards?

Yes. It's all chip and pin in the UK plus stuff like contactless payments. I'm sure the rest of the EU isn't far behind or is ahead.

I think it'll be 0.2 for debit cards and 0.3 for credit cards. As far as I know we don't get these enormous data breaches like the Target one either. Plenty of fraud still of course but not the giant examples.

I've spent a fair bit of time in the US and was astounded at how backwards it is in terms of how everyday finance works there. In the UK ATMs are mainly free. Bank transfers are free and not far off instant. International transfers don't hang about either.

legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1145
The revolution will be monetized!
It's the credit card companies who pick up the bill for data breaches. It does suck but I don't think people can be bothered to think it through enough for it to be a problem for them.

I seriously doubt Amazon pays that percentage on cards. The EU is proposing a 0.2% cap on card charges. The US does seem to be in the stone age when it comes to financial stuff so maybe they do pay more.

Irreversibility and instant funding are definitely huge boons for retailers. Still gotta figure out how to make it appeal for their customers. I don't think margins are big enough to offer the sexiest discounts.
I bet your right that Amazon is so huge that they have negotiated a better rate. But it can't be much better because they do have to pay for data breaches, not directly, but any business model requires someone else to pay other than the CC issuer. After all, this is not a public service so the issuer must pass on the insurance loss to the customer (in this case Amazon). The standard fee charged by MasterCard/Visa is 3%. I think businesses in America would love to only pay 0.2%, That is the lowest I have heard. Perhaps it is because we still use the extremely unsafe "magnetic stripe" cards?
legendary
Activity: 2590
Merit: 3008
Welt Am Draht

So what are the benefits? For me (the customer) the best benefit is privacy. Each time you use your credit card online you expose everything needed to steal more of your money. And you give this information to the business, the payment processor, and anyone else who is observing the transaction, hacking the server,... who knows? I don't use anything except bitcoin anymore online. In brick-n-mortar stores I still have to use the CC, and in the last year alone I have been issued new cards three times due to breaches.  

For the business the greatest advantage is money. They lose 3% on each transaction with a credit card. If they use a bitcoin payment processor they have to give up between 0%-1%.  They also like getting out of the liability of holding peoples CC information and the low risk of accepting what is essentially a cash transaction.  All these advantages and the extremely low bar to entry make me think they will have to accept BTC at some point. They have already lost my business and won't get it back until they take bitcoin.


It's the credit card companies who pick up the bill for data breaches. It does suck but I don't think people can be bothered to think it through enough for it to be a problem for them.

I seriously doubt Amazon pays that percentage on cards. The EU is proposing a 0.2% cap on card charges. The US does seem to be in the stone age when it comes to financial stuff so maybe they do pay more.

Irreversibility and instant funding are definitely huge boons for retailers. Still gotta figure out how to make it appeal for their customers. I don't think margins are big enough to offer the sexiest discounts.
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1145
The revolution will be monetized!
I don't think this will happen in the future. Bitcoin is clearly irreversible. It can show the data of the receiver or sender yes and it can't be anonymous but these kind of sites just don't deal with payment processors that both the buyers and sellers and THEM wont benefit.

Well... The fact that bitcoin is irreversible is one of the strongest advantages for Amazon. It eliminates the risk of fraud and allows them to ship with absolute confidence. With a credit card purchase the item is often shipped before the bank can confirm the credit account. That takes 2-30 days and by then the thief is long gone.
As far s not being anonymous, well... that is not quite correct. If you know what your doing you can use bitcoin in an anonymous way. But that does not matter to the receiver because they could care less who you are. What matters is that you paid. In fact who cares if it was you that paid, as long as payment was received.

So what are the benefits? For me (the customer) the best benefit is privacy. Each time you use your credit card online you expose everything needed to steal more of your money. And you give this information to the business, the payment processor, and anyone else who is observing the transaction, hacking the server,... who knows? I don't use anything except bitcoin anymore online. In brick-n-mortar stores I still have to use the CC, and in the last year alone I have been issued new cards three times due to breaches.  

For the business the greatest advantage is money. They lose 3% on each transaction with a credit card. If they use a bitcoin payment processor they have to give up between 0%-1%.  They also like getting out of the liability of holding peoples CC information and the low risk of accepting what is essentially a cash transaction.  All these advantages and the extremely low bar to entry make me think they will have to accept BTC at some point. They have already lost my business and won't get it back until they take bitcoin.

sr. member
Activity: 336
Merit: 250
Contacted their customer support today with the following message:

Quote
Hi!

I can only pay with bitcoins but you don't accept that payment method. I also cannot
exchange the bitcoins for a gift card on a 3rd party web service because none of
them is currently online. Please integrate with bitpay or start accepting bitcoin
payments directly so that I can order from your site.

Got this answer:

Quote
Hello,

I'm sorry if we did not meet your expectations. Unfortunately, we don't process Bit
Coins. However, I sent your inquiry and suggestion to the higher managements since
this is not the first suggestion from a customer. We do hope that in the near
future, we may be able to provide payments in all kind of payment methods.


That would be incredible because I use Amazon all the friggin' time and payment with bitcoin has been my goal since a long time. Soon, we may see a lot of websites and other resources using bitcoin as a currency. That is great news. Go, BITCOIN!










hero member
Activity: 672
Merit: 501
Contacted their customer support today with the following message:

Quote
Hi!

I can only pay with bitcoins but you don't accept that payment method. I also cannot
exchange the bitcoins for a gift card on a 3rd party web service because none of
them is currently online. Please integrate with bitpay or start accepting bitcoin
payments directly so that I can order from your site.

Got this answer:

Quote
Hello,

I'm sorry if we did not meet your expectations. Unfortunately, we don't process Bit
Coins. However, I sent your inquiry and suggestion to the higher managements since
this is not the first suggestion from a customer. We do hope that in the near
future, we may be able to provide payments in all kind of payment methods.

I don't think this will happen in the future. Bitcoin is clearly irreversible. It can show the data of the receiver or sender yes and it can't be anonymous but these kind of sites just don't deal with payment processors that both the buyers and sellers and THEM wont benefit.

Really? Why not? Newegg take bitcoin and they are one of the major retailers for computer hardware.
Pages:
Jump to: