- You are here:
- Home »
- Manufactured Spending
- » How to Use Amazon Payments
How to Use Amazon Payments
Disclaimer: This website is monetized by ads and other affiliates. As such, this article may contain affiliate links. If you decide to use them, you can sleep easier knowing you're helping me give my cats a better life. :) I really appreciate your support!
Amazon Payments is great for Manufactured Spending! They allow you to use a credit card to send a maximum of $1,000 a month for free, which makes it great for hitting minimum spending quotas or for getting an easy 1,000 points/miles. If you have not been signed up with Amazon Payments for very long, you might have some limits on your account. My original limit was $500 that could be sent or received. I simply added my bank account, called Amazon to verify some information, and they lifted my $500 limit. If that is the case on your account, I would suggest calling them to see if you can have your limit raised to the normal $1,000 limit. Also, you will need a friend, family member, or a person with a valid social security number to use this method.
1. First, head over to Amazon Payments and sign up. If you already have an Amazon account, then you can simply login with that username and password. Once you have signed up and logged in, you will see a page similar to the one below. Click Send Money on the menu bar.
2. This is the part where you will need a friend. When you are on the Send Money tab, enter the recipients information, select the amount you want to send them, select what the payment is for, and write a note as well if you would like. My lovely wife makes me some amazing dinners, so I wanted to thank her for that. I always write something in the note field, because it is good to have a reason for sending money via Amazon Payments. Also, DO NOT send money to a friend and have them send it right back to you. This is an easy way to have your account flagged. You do not want to have your account flagged, because then you can be banned from Amazon Payments.
3. Under the Payment is for, always select Goods/Services. If you select Cash Advance it is likely you will be charged a cash advance fee on your credit card. Cash advance fees differ by credit card, but they are never good. You will likely get a fee for using a cash advance, cash advances have higher interest rates than normal spending on a credit card does, and you will not get any points/miles from a cash advance. So, always make sure to select Goods/Services. In fact, I would suggest asking your credit card to lower your cash advance line down to $0 on every one of your credit cards. That way if your credit card ever tries to mark a purchase as a cash advance it will simply decline the card. The way I did it is by sending a secure message through my credit card account and asked that they lower my cash advance line. It worked on every one of my cards except my American Express.
4. Next you will need to add a credit card to your account. If you already had an Amazon account before signing up for Amazon Payments, then you likely already have a credit card or two on file. Those cards show up on Amazon Payments, so if that is the case, you are all set to send or receive some money! If you did not have an Amazon account or you didn’t have a credit card on file this is where you will do it. If you already have a credit card on file, you can skip to step 7.
5. Enter your card info and billing address.
6. Once you have entered all of your credit card info, it will bring you to the credit card page. This is kind of annoying, because now you have to go back to Send Money and re-enter the information you already entered. And yes I know I have a lot of credit cards on file, I am sort of addicted to them.
7. If you did need to enter a credit card, go back to Send Money > Recipient’s Info > Payment Method. Select send payment using a credit card and select the card you just entered or the card you want to use.
8. Click continue, review that the information is right, and send the money. Congratulations, you just sent your first payment through Amazon Payments! You can now go back to Your Account Overview and see the payment on your account. If you are new to Amazon Payments, if the recipient is new, or you added a new credit card, it is possible the status will say Pending. If that is the case, I would suggest calling Amazon Payments, seeing if there is an issue, and if there is see if you can fix it. It is very likely there is no issue, but it doesn’t hurt to check, just to make sure it will go through.
9. Soon after putting the money into Amazon Payments, I bet you want to get that money out. Here is how you do that. First, go to Withdraw Funds in the navigation bar.
10. Select your checking account if you already added it, however if you didn’t simply click Add a Bank Account.
11. If you have to add a bank account, simply enter the account information and you should be able to verify instantly by logging into your bank account. If that is not an option, unfortunately you will have to wait 2-3 business days for them to verify your account. Simply follow the instructions that Amazon Payments gives you while adding the account.
12. Now that you chose the bank account and the amount to withdraw, simply click confirm and you are done!
13. The withdraw will take about 5-7 business days, but you can always get the status by logging into your Amazon Payments account and seeing what the status is.
I hope that helps you use Amazon Payments to its fullest! Start small and get used to the system, before throwing around hundreds of dollars. Also, make sure your friend is trustworthy, you do not want them transferring the money to their bank account and not giving it back to you. That would be very unfortunate.
Questions? Leave them in the comments.
