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
May 1, 2014, 7:34 pm
#4066
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 10
May 1, 2014, 8:09 pm
#4067
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 16
That worked for me.
May 2, 2014, 11:04 am
#4069
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: SNA/LAX
Posts: 1,407
What makes you say that they are cracking down more than before? People have had their accounts suspended and closed plenty of times around here. It's more of how do they find out. Do you have any insight with that?
May 4, 2014, 11:32 pm
#4070
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: LAX/SNA
Programs: AA, Hilton Gold
Posts: 3,887
That being said I'm kind over one of my accounts going into pending every month now. At least it's only one, but it's a PITA since I have to keep checking to make sure it went through.
May 4, 2014, 11:46 pm
#4071
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 6
Does that mean if they shut down your AP, then your Amazon.com is also closed? That would really suck if you have any saved GC credit.
May 4, 2014, 11:51 pm
#4072
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,509
NO it is not. You can have a shutdown AP account but your Amazon.com account isn't touched so you don't have to worry about your Amazon GC balance getting stripped as well.
May 5, 2014, 7:45 pm
#4073
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: a hotel room, somewhere...
Posts: 962
conservative a-b-c ALL accounts closed today
wow.
i don't think i've read about this before (3 shut down same day). i've run a conservative a-b-c AP for a couple years or so. i say conservative, because i never completed the loop by going c-a. in fact, there was often a fair amount sitting in account c, as it's a family member's account who i support- extra cash easy to get to her bank acct when i'm out of the country. so, there was actually $3900 sitting in the account today.
anyway, all 3 got the email today that they are closed and to w/d money within 3 days.
data points:
never used gift cards
always used incognito/private browsing
possible/probable trigger:
in march, i was unable to send a-b. i assumed A was shut down. so i sent a message to AP (i've been in this game too long and know better- i have no idea what was going thru my head to contact them. if i read someone else doing the same, i'd think they were a moron. so, clearly, i'm a moron!). they never replied. later i realized that the authorized user card had hit the monthly spending limit i set for it with Amex. so, in late april i tried again and it went thru- no problem. well.... until today!
i assume that contact was the trigger. though it's odd, as the accounts were not closed until 5 1/2 weeks later- and after another a-b-c i did in april.
i'm leaving the country soon for about a year and AP was about all i had for MS while i'm gone. keyword: WAS.
signed,
stupid
i don't think i've read about this before (3 shut down same day). i've run a conservative a-b-c AP for a couple years or so. i say conservative, because i never completed the loop by going c-a. in fact, there was often a fair amount sitting in account c, as it's a family member's account who i support- extra cash easy to get to her bank acct when i'm out of the country. so, there was actually $3900 sitting in the account today.
anyway, all 3 got the email today that they are closed and to w/d money within 3 days.
data points:
never used gift cards
always used incognito/private browsing
possible/probable trigger:
in march, i was unable to send a-b. i assumed A was shut down. so i sent a message to AP (i've been in this game too long and know better- i have no idea what was going thru my head to contact them. if i read someone else doing the same, i'd think they were a moron. so, clearly, i'm a moron!). they never replied. later i realized that the authorized user card had hit the monthly spending limit i set for it with Amex. so, in late april i tried again and it went thru- no problem. well.... until today!
i assume that contact was the trigger. though it's odd, as the accounts were not closed until 5 1/2 weeks later- and after another a-b-c i did in april.
i'm leaving the country soon for about a year and AP was about all i had for MS while i'm gone. keyword: WAS.
signed,
stupid
May 5, 2014, 8:52 pm
#4074
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
Geez, all these shut downs have me worried. I started becoming aggressive this past month. Together with my family members, we have set up A-B-C-D-E-A, with 3 different last names among the 5 people. I really hope this lasts. We'll be careful and do a few hundred at a time. No sharing of gift card/credit card numbers. I wonder if changing the order of things once in a while will help.
May 6, 2014, 5:35 am
#4075
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: SNA/LAX
Posts: 1,407
Geez, all these shut downs have me worried. I started becoming aggressive this past month. Together with my family members, we have set up A-B-C-D-E-A, with 3 different last names among the 5 people. I really hope this lasts. We'll be careful and do a few hundred at a time. No sharing of gift card/credit card numbers. I wonder if changing the order of things once in a while will help.
If something gets tied up, let it be and if you can't get into that account, create a new one and forget the last. Your CC pending payment will drop because it was not a successful transfer and it is free to create a new email address, so there is no worries about leaving the past behind. For secured measures, you can delete all information from your "broken" AP account so it doesn't look as if there are two members with same bank/same CC, etc.
The only reason anyone should be contacting these companies is if you truly have money tied up and there is a legit recourse. Otherwise you're just feeding food to the birds and you know what that does...
May 6, 2014, 5:54 am
#4076
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 165
Been using AP for a while very carefully.
My wife needs to make a payment to me, but only has a CC that is under my name (she isn't an authorized user for this one). Can she use a credit card that is in my name? That card has not been used on AP any time before so it is new. I worry by having my name on the CC and my name as the recipient that it will be shut down.
My instincts say "no". But I wanted to see if others have done this.
My wife needs to make a payment to me, but only has a CC that is under my name (she isn't an authorized user for this one). Can she use a credit card that is in my name? That card has not been used on AP any time before so it is new. I worry by having my name on the CC and my name as the recipient that it will be shut down.
My instincts say "no". But I wanted to see if others have done this.
May 6, 2014, 5:57 am
#4077
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Chicago
Programs: AA, BA, CX, DL, EK, F9, GA, HA, IB, JL, KE, LH, MH, NH, OS, PG, QR, RJ, SA, TG, UA, VN, WN, ZH
Posts: 927
Been using AP for a while very carefully.
My wife needs to make a payment to me, but only has a CC that is under my name (she isn't an authorized user for this one). Can she use a credit card that is in my name? That card has not been used on AP any time before so it is new. I worry by having my name on the CC and my name as the recipient that it will be shut down.
My instincts say "no". But I wanted to see if others have done this.
My wife needs to make a payment to me, but only has a CC that is under my name (she isn't an authorized user for this one). Can she use a credit card that is in my name? That card has not been used on AP any time before so it is new. I worry by having my name on the CC and my name as the recipient that it will be shut down.
My instincts say "no". But I wanted to see if others have done this.
May 8, 2014, 12:10 pm
#4079
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: Hyatt Globalist No More..., Hyatt Explorist, Hilton Diamond, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 4,375
Woohoo!! Finally got my "C" person on board. Took forever (2 months) to get him to set everything up and connect his Serve acct (which I use.). Then after all was said in donw, there was an error with claiming received money and he told me to just log in and do it. It was using the same password that I knew from other stuff so I could have just done this myself two months ago!
Ugh! Anyways, he got a weird error. He was able to send money ($1k) with an Amex GC but when it was time to claim money, it said that he had to add a credit card (almost like his acct wasn't verified). I guess Amex GC isn't sufficient enough in that aspect. He didn't want to add any real bank or credit card to this but luckily I was able to get past it by adding his Serve card as a real credit card.
Now I can do A->B->C->A!
Ugh! Anyways, he got a weird error. He was able to send money ($1k) with an Amex GC but when it was time to claim money, it said that he had to add a credit card (almost like his acct wasn't verified). I guess Amex GC isn't sufficient enough in that aspect. He didn't want to add any real bank or credit card to this but luckily I was able to get past it by adding his Serve card as a real credit card.
Now I can do A->B->C->A!
May 8, 2014, 12:13 pm
#4080
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: OC/LAX
Posts: 376
Woohoo!! Finally got my "C" person on board. Took forever (2 months) to get him to set everything up and connect his Serve acct (which I use.). Then after all was said in donw, there was an error with claiming received money and he told me to just log in and do it. It was using the same password that I knew from other stuff so I could have just done this myself two months ago!
Ugh! Anyways, he got a weird error. He was able to send money ($1k) with an Amex GC but when it was time to claim money, it said that he had to add a credit card (almost like his acct wasn't verified). I guess Amex GC isn't sufficient enough in that aspect. He didn't want to add any real bank or credit card to this but luckily I was able to get past it by adding his Serve card as a real credit card.
Now I can do A->B->C->A!
Ugh! Anyways, he got a weird error. He was able to send money ($1k) with an Amex GC but when it was time to claim money, it said that he had to add a credit card (almost like his acct wasn't verified). I guess Amex GC isn't sufficient enough in that aspect. He didn't want to add any real bank or credit card to this but luckily I was able to get past it by adding his Serve card as a real credit card.
Now I can do A->B->C->A!