Nov 10, 2013, 11:26 am
Last edit by: mcdullhk88
Dead as of 10/13/14
FAQ's
Is Amazon Payments treated as a cash advance? No CC issuer has been reported as treating an AP transaction as a cash advance unless the sender selected "Payment is for Cash Advance" on the Send Money screen.
What does it mean when your payment is "pending"? Your payment will be reviewed. We are unsure whether this review is done by a human or computer. It should take less than 24 hours but is usually within minutes.
How should you describe your payment? "Goods or services" will allow you to charge with a CC and it will not be treated as a cash advance. Note: If you choose cash advance, it may be treated as such by your CC issuer; always choose Goods/Services. There is no reason to put anything in the optional description field - leave it blank.
What is the monthly limit for sending CC payments? $1,000 per calendar month per AP account
What is the monthly limit for receiving CC payments? $1,000 per calendar month per AP account
What if it is not allowing me to send/receive more than $500 or any at all? You probably have not verified your bank and/or added a CC. In order to get the full $1,000 allowance for sending and receiving you must have a bank verified AND a CC added to your account as a payment method.
Does AP qualify for special spending categories? Specifically it qualifies for Discover's (usually 4th quarter) category of online purchases but so far, not Chase's "5% CB on Amazon.com purchases." Refer to thread for other options.
Can you get shutdown? Yes.
How do you get shutdown? No one knows. Anecdotes are found throughout the thread. Some suspicious behavior that MIGHT get your AP account(s) shut down is listed below.
Which transaction is most advisable? A -> B -> C -> A (see here)
Are any fees charged during this process? No, not by Amazon Payments. If your transaction is treated as a cash advance by your card issuer--fees are possible. Beware and always double check that goods/services is selected!
Can you liquidate Amazon GC via AP? NO!
Can you liquidate other gift cards via AP? Yes. Note that you cannot liquidate the full value of a GC because amazon places a $1 hold while it verifies the validity of the GC. You can sometimes (not always) avoid the hold by entering an incorrect expiration date for the GC when adding it to your AP account, and after you have added it, go to "Edit my account settings," then to "Add edit or delete my credit cards" and edit the expiration date there.
When does the month end? It appears as if Amazon is on pacific time, so midnight PDT/PST is when the month resets.
It bears repeating that no one knows the methodology amazon uses to police AP transactions, determines which transactions violate its T&Cs, or identifies violators. However, various people in this thread and elsewhere have confirmed that their AP account(s) were shut down for the following reasons:
Additionally, we have updated the terms and conditions of our User Agreement (https://payments.amazon.com/help/Personal-Accounts/User-Agreement-Policies/User-Agreement) that apply to your use of the products and services provided by Amazon Payments. Our updated User Agreement revises certain terms (including, among other things, the elimination of person-to-person payments). Our new User Agreement will become effective on October 13, 2014, which is more than 30 days from when we first posted our updated User Agreement. By continuing to use our services after October 13, 2014, you are agreeing to be bound by the terms and conditions of our new User Agreement.
Is Amazon Payments treated as a cash advance? No CC issuer has been reported as treating an AP transaction as a cash advance unless the sender selected "Payment is for Cash Advance" on the Send Money screen.
What does it mean when your payment is "pending"? Your payment will be reviewed. We are unsure whether this review is done by a human or computer. It should take less than 24 hours but is usually within minutes.
How should you describe your payment? "Goods or services" will allow you to charge with a CC and it will not be treated as a cash advance. Note: If you choose cash advance, it may be treated as such by your CC issuer; always choose Goods/Services. There is no reason to put anything in the optional description field - leave it blank.
What is the monthly limit for sending CC payments? $1,000 per calendar month per AP account
What is the monthly limit for receiving CC payments? $1,000 per calendar month per AP account
What if it is not allowing me to send/receive more than $500 or any at all? You probably have not verified your bank and/or added a CC. In order to get the full $1,000 allowance for sending and receiving you must have a bank verified AND a CC added to your account as a payment method.
Does AP qualify for special spending categories? Specifically it qualifies for Discover's (usually 4th quarter) category of online purchases but so far, not Chase's "5% CB on Amazon.com purchases." Refer to thread for other options.
Can you get shutdown? Yes.
How do you get shutdown? No one knows. Anecdotes are found throughout the thread. Some suspicious behavior that MIGHT get your AP account(s) shut down is listed below.
Which transaction is most advisable? A -> B -> C -> A (see here)
Are any fees charged during this process? No, not by Amazon Payments. If your transaction is treated as a cash advance by your card issuer--fees are possible. Beware and always double check that goods/services is selected!
Can you liquidate Amazon GC via AP? NO!
Can you liquidate other gift cards via AP? Yes. Note that you cannot liquidate the full value of a GC because amazon places a $1 hold while it verifies the validity of the GC. You can sometimes (not always) avoid the hold by entering an incorrect expiration date for the GC when adding it to your AP account, and after you have added it, go to "Edit my account settings," then to "Add edit or delete my credit cards" and edit the expiration date there.
When does the month end? It appears as if Amazon is on pacific time, so midnight PDT/PST is when the month resets.
It bears repeating that no one knows the methodology amazon uses to police AP transactions, determines which transactions violate its T&Cs, or identifies violators. However, various people in this thread and elsewhere have confirmed that their AP account(s) were shut down for the following reasons:
- Associating one credit card number with more than one AP account (Be Careful if authorized user card has the same number as the primary card holder - in some instances the CC numbers are completely different)
- Associating one bank account with more than one AP account
Amazon Payments
Feb 4, 2014 | 3:24 pm
#3466
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,616
The reality is that people are not going to read 200+ pages of the thread and really a wiki is suppose to essentially be a FAQ. If you look at any Slickdeals thread, the wiki section is a FAQ. If you look at the Bluebird thread in the wiki section. Now that is useful information. A wiki that just outlines what questions has been asked and then tell people to search for it in the 200+ pages is not useful at all.
Feb 4, 2014 | 3:27 pm
#3467
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: SNA/LAX
Posts: 1,410
You don't understand. Sure it is easy to just say "just go find it" but I think its just easier to provide a quick answer to each question and then if someone still asks the question, you can just point to "look at the Wiki" instead of "its buried in this humongous 200+ page thread". Just like any sort of MS, people want to do a lot of research before doing so, so your suggestion of just "figure it out for yourself by doing" approach does not work. I certainly wouldn't want any new AP user for MS to just do stuff that can ruin the game.
The reality is that people are not going to read 200+ pages of the thread and really a wiki is suppose to essentially be a FAQ. If you look at any Slickdeals thread, the wiki section is a FAQ. If you look at the Bluebird thread in the wiki section. Now that is useful information. A wiki that just outlines what questions has been asked and then tell people to search for it in the 200+ pages is not useful at all.
The reality is that people are not going to read 200+ pages of the thread and really a wiki is suppose to essentially be a FAQ. If you look at any Slickdeals thread, the wiki section is a FAQ. If you look at the Bluebird thread in the wiki section. Now that is useful information. A wiki that just outlines what questions has been asked and then tell people to search for it in the 200+ pages is not useful at all.
Feb 4, 2014 | 3:29 pm
#3468
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,616
I think the wiki looks a lot better now. At least it provides answers to the most common questions. Thanks for the update.
Feb 4, 2014 | 10:14 pm
#3469
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 260
A few months ago I opened second accounts for myself and spouse. Worked fine, so I decided to go for third accounts. Those worked at first, but then the second and third sets of accounts were soon all closed. First accounts were never closed. I've since re-opened new second accounts, which seem to be fine so far. Always have used separate emails, bank accounts, and CCs across accounts.
Based on my experience, there seems to be little risk with opening a second/third account. Worst case, it gets shutdown, with the main account left intact. And you can always try again later. YMMV, of course.
Based on my experience, there seems to be little risk with opening a second/third account. Worst case, it gets shutdown, with the main account left intact. And you can always try again later. YMMV, of course.
Just to add some data. When you got shut down on accts, were you doing A>B>A? Or we're you mixing it with a third party? Also, were you using the same computer=IP signature for them to track you down on transactions?
Feb 4, 2014 | 11:06 pm
#3470
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: LAX/SNA
Programs: AA, Hilton Gold
Posts: 3,887
For example a common question that gets asked is "what triggers Amazon to shut down your account?" There is no easy answer to this but in the wiki it could list "using same IP address to make the transaction, doing A>B and B>A, same bank accounts and CCs have all shown to increase chances of shutdown". Something like that would be sufficient.
The reality is that people are not going to read 200+ pages of the thread and really a wiki is suppose to essentially be a FAQ. If you look at any Slickdeals thread, the wiki section is a FAQ. If you look at the Bluebird thread in the wiki section. Now that is useful information. A wiki that just outlines what questions has been asked and then tell people to search for it in the 200+ pages is not useful at all.
At the same time though, the VAST majority of questions are repeats which are asked and answered within the last 10 pages, usually the last 2-3, which just shows an unwillingness to search or even spend a few minutes looking.
Feb 5, 2014 | 1:11 am
#3472
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: NY
Posts: 233
Shouldn't we keep this discussion in the other thread? Seems like it'll be more organized that way, and will not clog up this thread. Just mentioning this because I believe there is a great dialog in the other thread, and would hate for points to be missed there due to them being elsewhere.
Feb 5, 2014 | 4:35 am
#3474
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: WAS
Programs: SPG Plat. Marriott Plat. Hilton Diamond. Hyatt Diamond. IHG Plat.
Posts: 2,580
Feb 5, 2014 | 5:27 am
#3476
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: SNA/LAX
Posts: 1,410
I broke it up this month between two accounts, but I have always just done the straight $1k. Too many accounts to keep track of which money is going where and making sure they all get paid correctly. It would be possible, but I use AP for it's efficiency.
Feb 5, 2014 | 12:44 pm
#3479
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: Hyatt Globalist No More..., Hyatt Explorist, Hilton Diamond, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 4,386
Another data point to add to the wiki, is the gift card expiration date trick. I would update it but I don't know the exact wording for it.