Amazon Payment Systems Take On PayPal 92
Bridger writes "Amazon has introduced two new payment systems for merchants and consumers, which brings it into a market dominated by PayPal. Google introduced a similar system for merchants and consumers in 2006, also called Checkout, but it has not found favor with online retailers. Auction giant eBay, which owns PayPal, has prevented consumers from using the Google system."
Re:Illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Am I naive or doesn't that violate some kind of consumer rights?
The consumer's right is that they can shop elsewhere.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Google Payments / Checkout could work if ... (Score:3, Informative)
If they allowed sellers in countries other than just the US and UK to be involved, until they expand that a bit more (Australia, NewZealand, even Canada?) things could be different.
For now I guess the commissions will just have to go to PayPal and my local merchant provider.
Come on Google, pull your finger out and expand that service.
Re:Illegal? (Score:1, Informative)
Mmmm.. you mean like when you walk into fred's department store & they accept mastercard but not visa?
Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:3, Informative)
E-Gold? You mean Ponzi Pesos don't you?
PayPal is often (mostly??) used for things totally unrelated to Ebay. It was in business long before Ebay purchased them.
It has a lot of advantage when dealing with people you don't want to provide any permanent credentials, such as when buying something from an unknown individual or donating money to some organization, group, or charity.
E-Gold, on the other hand was, is, an always will be a scam.
Re:Checkout? (Score:2, Informative)
Good question... Perhaps because it's a generic word? Compare to "Word". Technically, "Word" isn't called "Word" but "Microsoft Word".
So the of from Google is called "Google Checkout" and the one from Amazon is called "Amazon Checkout". Of course, I don't know for sure...
Re:Is it global ? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:5, Informative)
It has a lot of advantage when dealing with people you don't want to provide any permanent credentials, such as when buying something from an unknown individual or donating money to some organization, group, or charity.
Visa, at least, and probably the other cards by now, have a system where you can generate a single use credit card number pre authorized for specific merchant and dollar amount. So you can use that numbe in an online transaction and the merchant gets a number that's only valid for that single use single dollar amount. If it gets stolen, no big deal. If the merchant tries to double bill it, no dice. etc etc. And I trust Visa a lot more than Paypal.
I don't hate paypal, but I do dislike using it given all the limitations, fees, and scams. I also despise the ebay/paypal pairing.
As for egold... yeah total scam... it had potential...maybe something like it still does.
But I think the real juggernauts -- the banks -- still have to weigh in on this.
My bank recently introduced "Interac Email Money Transfer" and its pretty freaking impressive. I can send money to nearly anyone in Canada with a Canadian bank account, and an email address. We don't need to share bank information or personal information at all. All I need to know as the sender is the recipients email address -- any email address, they can even use a throw-away one as long as they can pick up email on it, and I don't need to know what bank they belong to as long as its participating in the Interac Email system which is currently the 5 major Canadian banks (TD, RBC, Scotia, CIBC, and BMO).
The price is a flat $1.50 per transaction, which is pretty steep to pay for a $10.00 ebay win... but a drop in the bucket when paying for a $500 transaction. There is no fee to receive money.
If they don't use one of the 5 participating banks, but have an account at, for example, a credit union, they can -still- receive money, but I think it gets redirected through a more complicated and time consuming inter-bank transfer, and there is a fee charged to the recipient.
For me this is the paypal killer. Not only is it secure convenient and trustworthy but banks and credit unions, at least in Canada are pretty customer service oriented...toll free 24-hour hot-lines, and genuinely useful staff are the norm in my experience with TD, RBC, and Scotiabank. Contrast that with Paypal. :)
Already for me, anything significant is now done via this interac system when I can. Once it expands to the credit unions and/or goes international... I think paypal and its cohorts will be reduced to competing for petty cash transactions and micropayments, e.g. sending sums like... $1 or $5, where the $1.50 fee is just too much.
but I wouldn't be surprised to see the interac system evolve and start offering 'plans' in addition to the a la cart flat fee.
For details check it out...
http://www.interac.ca/consumers/productsandservices_ol_emt.php [interac.ca] ... not sure if something like this is in the states yet...
Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Amazonbay (Score:4, Informative)
In economic terms, auctions are more efficient. Auctions ensure that people pay the value to them of the product, and that the seller gets the correct price from the market.
If I price a good at $10, and nobody wants to buy it, I sell none, nobody enjoys the product, and I am none the wiser as to the value of the product, other than I know its under $10 (or it may be due to their being zero demand).
An auction makes the *real* value and price of the product immediately apparent to both parties, and allows it to vary over time to capture markets that otherwise would not be satisfied. Rather than suffering from understock or overstock, the price automatically adjusts so that all products get sold, and every slice of the market gets access to the product.
Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:3, Informative)
For me this is the paypal killer. Not only is it secure convenient and trustworthy but banks and credit unions, at least in Canada are pretty customer service oriented...toll free 24-hour hot-lines, and genuinely useful staff are the norm in my experience with TD, RBC, and Scotiabank. Contrast that with Paypal.
But, this means you have to actually have the money to send. With PayPal (or other payment services), you can back your payment with a credit card. For the vast amount of people who rack up a lot of debt, this is important.
I use a credit card for PayPal payments because I get the credit card rewards. Plus, I don't like some of the PayPal practices very much. In particular, at one time sending "cash" (i.e., transfer from a bank account) was free. Later, it had a small fee. Now, it is exactly the same as paying with a credit card. So, I figure if PayPal is going to charge money as if you used a credit card, then it might as well actually cost them that much.
Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:3, Informative)
I recently sold some software on Ebay. This is something I rarely do but it was the place to get the most money.
Between ebay and paypal I paid 16.00 for 165.00 transaction. It roughly went half and half. Around 8.00 just to paypal. The percentage kills me. I still occasionally buy from ebay but I'll probably never sell there again.
If they took google I might. I don't have an issue giving ebay their fees. But in the day of electronic instant transactions sending money should be almost free.
The only other options are MO or Check. No thanks.