Amazon is now making it easier for consumers to buy products through its online store with cash.
The online retail giant on Monday announced a new service called Amazon Cash that lets consumers add paper money to their Amazon accounts and make purchases online with no credit or debit card. Amazon doesn’t charge a fee for processing the cash transfer, so whatever users add to their accounts they can spend on the site.
Amazon Cash is an answer for those who might not want to make purchases online with a debit or credit card, but still want to buy goods from the company’s vast online store. The process for getting cash into an Amazon (AMZN) account, however, requires a brick-and-mortar store visit.
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First, users need to go to Amazon.com, log into their accounts, and go to the Amazon Cash page. From there, users will need to request a barcode unique to their accounts. Amazon gives users the option to have the barcode text messaged to their smartphones or printed out.
Armed with the barcode, users need to go to a participating retailer, visit a cashier, and request to add between $15 and $500 in cash to their accounts. Users then hand over in cash the amount they want credited to their accounts, the cashier scans the barcode to verify the purchase, and the sum is automatically added to the users’ accounts.
Amazon has partnered with several retailers on Cash, including CVS, Speedway, and D&W Fresh Market. The company says Amazon Cash is now supported at “thousands” of retail locations, and it plans to add more partners in the near future.
Amazon Cash is available now.
