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
Jun 21, 2014, 12:48 pm
#4322
Join Date: Feb 2011
Programs: DL DM Hub Captive, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, PC Plat, and other stuff.
Posts: 904
Once again, repeating after Domat:
If they wanted, they could find and ban ALL the duplicate accounts in 48 hours or less.
It would be the task for the unpaid intern programmer in their IT organization.
They do not need to have your IPs.
But you can believe whatever you want.
If they wanted, they could find and ban ALL the duplicate accounts in 48 hours or less.
It would be the task for the unpaid intern programmer in their IT organization.
They do not need to have your IPs.
But you can believe whatever you want.
However, when I recently logged in with a different IP than my norm, it triggered a re-verification of identity by AP.
I totally agree with you that AP could find all my bogus accounts in a snap if it was a priority for them. But it's not accurate to say that IP addresses don't matter at all. For some people - like you - it hasn't mattered, and you extrapolate that to mean that it doesn't matter for everybody. But for other people - like me - logging in via a different IP address can trigger a red flag. Who wants to trigger red flags when you have a golden goose? Not me.
Maybe the IP thing matters more for people with a large number of AP accounts?
Jun 21, 2014, 1:05 pm
#4323
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 201
Does anyone really think that Amazon - the company whose pattern recognition algorithms and predictive modeling approaches introduced the idea of "you may also be interested in" and "others who looked at this also bought x" to the world - needs to run down your IP to figure out what you're doing?
Would be far easier for them to have some quant jock write some code that detects the transaction pattern of someone who's churning money. And far more accurate as well.
If you really want to stop dead in your tracks, think about this:
You know when you're on FB and you start seeing ads for that tent you were looking at on REI.com yesterday? Think about how they know to serve you that ad.
Go ahead. Take a minute.
Give it another thirty seconds.
Got it?
Now think about whether you've ever logged into your Amazon Payments account using the same computer that you used to visit Flyer Talk, the Manufactured Spending forum, and even this very thread.
You've got paint on the bottom of your shoes, and anyone who wants to know where you've been previously can figure it out.
Would be far easier for them to have some quant jock write some code that detects the transaction pattern of someone who's churning money. And far more accurate as well.
If you really want to stop dead in your tracks, think about this:
You know when you're on FB and you start seeing ads for that tent you were looking at on REI.com yesterday? Think about how they know to serve you that ad.
Go ahead. Take a minute.
Give it another thirty seconds.
Got it?
Now think about whether you've ever logged into your Amazon Payments account using the same computer that you used to visit Flyer Talk, the Manufactured Spending forum, and even this very thread.
You've got paint on the bottom of your shoes, and anyone who wants to know where you've been previously can figure it out.
Jun 21, 2014, 6:27 pm
#4324
Join Date: Feb 2011
Programs: DL DM Hub Captive, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, PC Plat, and other stuff.
Posts: 904
Does anyone really think that Amazon - the company whose pattern recognition algorithms and predictive modeling approaches introduced the idea of "you may also be interested in" and "others who looked at this also bought x" to the world - needs to run down your IP to figure out what you're doing?
Would be far easier for them to have some quant jock write some code that detects the transaction pattern of someone who's churning money. And far more accurate as well.
If you really want to stop dead in your tracks, think about this:
You know when you're on FB and you start seeing ads for that tent you were looking at on REI.com yesterday? Think about how they know to serve you that ad.
Go ahead. Take a minute.
Give it another thirty seconds.
Got it?
Now think about whether you've ever logged into your Amazon Payments account using the same computer that you used to visit Flyer Talk, the Manufactured Spending forum, and even this very thread.
You've got paint on the bottom of your shoes, and anyone who wants to know where you've been previously can figure it out.
Would be far easier for them to have some quant jock write some code that detects the transaction pattern of someone who's churning money. And far more accurate as well.
If you really want to stop dead in your tracks, think about this:
You know when you're on FB and you start seeing ads for that tent you were looking at on REI.com yesterday? Think about how they know to serve you that ad.
Go ahead. Take a minute.
Give it another thirty seconds.
Got it?
Now think about whether you've ever logged into your Amazon Payments account using the same computer that you used to visit Flyer Talk, the Manufactured Spending forum, and even this very thread.
You've got paint on the bottom of your shoes, and anyone who wants to know where you've been previously can figure it out.
Go ahead. Take a minute.
Give it another 30 seconds.
Got it?
I understand that avoiding IP redundancy doesn't provide foolproof protection from AP shutdown. But logging into multiple bogus AP accounts from a single identical IP seems obviously to be asking for problems. In my case, it triggered an identity audit.
Jun 24, 2014, 12:46 am
#4326
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: WAS
Programs: SPG Plat. Marriott Plat. Hilton Diamond. Hyatt Diamond. IHG Plat.
Posts: 2,580
Jun 24, 2014, 10:01 am
#4328
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Down South, The Desert
Programs: Marriot Rewards, Southwest Rapid rewards, Emerald Club, Avis Preferred
Posts: 1,871
Jun 24, 2014, 10:03 am
#4329
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: PDX|AKL|AMS|GVA|AGP|CPT - or somewhere in between
Programs: DL DM; 2MM
Posts: 2,418
Jun 24, 2014, 3:58 pm
#4335
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 69
The site had login issues around 100PT. Whenever you login it would just kick you back to the login site. It went on for about a couple hours. Unfortunately after I was able to get back in on my 2nd account, AP told me no go for a 2nd account. 