What is Amazon Payments and how does it work?

Amazon Payments, or better known now as Amazon Pay, is one of the online payment platforms that undoubtedly rivals PayPal. It is widely used in America, but not so much in Europe, at least until now.

But What is Amazon Payments? Is it safe? What advantages can you offer us? All that and much more is what we are going to talk about below so that you know this online platform in full.

What is Amazon Payments

Amazon Payments is an online payment platform, which allows customers to pay for their purchases using an Amazon account. To make a payment, customers can use a credit card, a bank account or simply use the balance in your Amazon Payments account.

In other words, users use information already stored in your Amazon accounts, to log in and pay instantly on all web pages that accept this payment platform. Users can view the status of the payment or issue a full or partial refund, just by clicking on the Amazon Payments button which is located at the bottom of your purchase order.

Amazon Payments deposits funds into the payment account as soon as a customer's transaction goes through it. At this point it is important to mention that the funds are kept in the account up to 14 days later as a reserve and after that time, the funds can be transferred to a bank account or Amazon gift card.

Is Amazon Payments safe?

When using a online payment platform, Doubts can assail you, especially in the case of important payments. Each of these platforms have security systems that make them more or less secure. But, without a doubt, the strong point in the case of Amazon Payments is that it protects user data. Why? Well, because you can buy in online stores that are not related to Amazon without having to give your personal data or need to register when buying.

In other words, Amazon will protect your identity and that online business (eCommerce) will only know about you the account that is provided for payment. But this will not be a bank account or a credit card. The email will act, as it already happens in PayPal, only that, in this case, we are talking about the email with which we registered with Amazon.

Thus, Amazon becomes the intermediary when buying online ensuring that the transaction is carried out efficiently and, otherwise, claiming.

Advantages and disadvantages

Amazon Payments follows almost the same guidelines as PayPal, another of the successful platforms when it comes to online payments. However, as with any of them, it has its pros and cons.

In general, Advantages of Amazon Pay are as follows:

• The possibility of buying quickly, without having to enter your personal data, but with the payment method they are already in charge of managing everything.
• You have the Amazon A to Z guarantee, which protects you in case the product is not what you expected, it is damaged or broken, or it has not even been sent to you.
• Buy safely, because you will not have to share your information with the seller, or even give part of it.
• It is possible to make donations to NGOs.

As for the drawbacks, the main one of this platform is, without a doubt, its implementation. And it is that although there are more and more eCommerce that place Paypal as a means of payment, the same does not happen with the case of Amazon Payments. This is not in as many online stores as you would like, which greatly limits its use.

Advantages if you are a buyer

Digging a little deeper into the platform, we can find advantages for both buyers and sellers. In the case of the former, one of the main advantages is the fact that, as a buyer, you do not have to give any personal information in your purchase. In fact, you don't even need to give your address to get the order shipped, Since Amazon already has that data and it is he who is going to take care of everything.

In addition, you have a 90-day protection to claim, something that, with other platforms, for example in the case of PayPal, is reduced to 60 days.

Advantages if you are a seller

As sellers, using Amazon Payments also has its advantages, although it starts with a major disadvantage. And is that, by not giving the data the buyers, you can not register that customer in your database, and therefore you can not count it for promotional or subscription issues (unless that person agrees to be in them).

But, among the advantages for these groups, one of them is the have the necessary information to be able to make invoices or shipments. This information is given to sellers through your seller account, and it will be protected so that you cannot use it freely, but only with the corresponding function, send you the product you have purchased.

On the other hand, sellers will also be protected against fraud, in such a way that there is security not only for workers, but also for sellers.

How Amazon Payments works

Customers can withdraw funds from their Amazon Payments account at any time once they are available. Withdrawing funds from a bank account usually takes about 5 to 7 business days, depending on the bank.

It is also important to mention that all shipping and payment information is stored securely in the Amazon Payments account, so the customer can access it to pay for their goods or services.

In this way, it is not necessary to have several accounts, since you only need sign in to Amazon and use your Amazon Payments account to make payments without having to re-enter credit card information or other personal and financial information.

Right now, the possibility of using Amazon Payments is in e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Prestashop, Magento and WooCommerce. All of them use a specific plugin to enable this payment system and it is very easy to install and use, which gives customers of online stores more options.

How to pay with Amazon Payments

If it is still not clear to you, you should know that the payment method in Amazon Payments is always made through Amazon (or from Amazon Prime). To do this, you will have to register and have a means of payment. As you know, the only ones accepted in this case are a debit card, credit card or a prepaid card, accepting the most common ones, such as MasterCard, Maestro, American Express, Visa Electron, Visa ...

Once you have that payment method, you can use it in eCommerce where they have enabled payment by Amazon Payments or Amazon Pay, either through the computer, mobile or even through Alexa using voice commands.

Amazon Payments costs and fees

Although there is no charge for buyers to use this payment method, this is not the case for sellers. In order for them to accept payments through Amazon Payments, they have to pay a commission, similar to what happens in the case of PayPal.

Thus, the rates are as follows:

If they are national transactions, it is divided into five tranches, depending on the amount of money. Specific:

• Less than € 2.500 corresponds to a rate of 3.4% + € 0,35.
• From € 2.500,01 to € 10.000 corresponds to a rate of 2.9% + € 0,35.
• From € 10.000,01 to € 50.000 corresponds to a rate of 2.7% + € 0,35.
• From € 50.000,01 to € 100.000 corresponds to a rate of 2.4% + € 0,35.
• More than € 100.000 corresponds to a rate of 1.9% + € 0,35.

If they are international transactions, payments will require an extra fee that will depend on where the payment is made, if in Europe, Canada, Albania ... In this sense:

• European Economic Area and Switzerland do not pay commission.
• Canada, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Montenegro, United States, pay a 2% commission.
• Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russian Federation Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine will have a commission of 3%.
• Rest of the world is governed by a 3.3% commission.