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Comment by ProjectArcturis | Hacker News Reader

I dropped Amazon entirely a couple years ago because they didn't provide any way at all to separate my credit card from my kid's Fire tablet and I didn't want to be on the hook for thousands in charges because he pushed the wrong button. It's remarkably easy! It has made basically no change to my life except that I'm a little smug about not using Amazon.

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What do you use instead? My main reason for using Amazon is the shipping which no one else can come close to

Same or next day shipping on most things I order is wild, when something goes beyond a 2-3 days on Amazon it even feels odd

And the “do you actually need the item/s that fast” isn’t the response I am looking for

Shop.App doesn't have everything, but they do have a lot and many merchants have fast shipping options. I always try to search them and Newegg before trying Amazon.

Newegg marketplace is a funny place. Not only many items are more expensive than elsewhere, I had my orders delivered literally in Amazon or Walmart packaging. There are genuine merchants that made a choice to work with Newegg but there are many resellers from other stores as well.

Target/Walmart/BestBuy. They both have fast shipping options as well as store pickup. Sometimes (if you live somewhere more rural) they have _faster_ shipping times than Amazon.

I'm not in the US, but friends there tell me that Home Depot routinely delivers from the local store within a few hours.

(Here, unfortunately, their web site is useless crap.)

Walmart / Home Depot / Lowes / Kroger are generally going to beat Amazon on quickest delivery for most people for most items, if they want to, by virtue of their local brick and mortar footprint.

One reason I imagine Amazon pushed so hard for short delivery times was knowing eventually their legacy peers would leverage this against them.

Not to mention a long delivery time gives people more opportunity to simply go to the store and get something, while they’re out running other errands.

I live in a well populated suburban area. If I’m willing to actually leave my house, I can get most things much faster than Amazon can deliver them. This also helps keep those local businesses running, so shipping doesn’t become the only option in the future.

Home Depot/Lowes often have faster delivery than Amazon (like literally delivered in a few hours or next day morning).

I live in the country. Amazon takes days to ship out here, though sometimes it has 1-2 day. Walmart has same day shipping (not delivery, regular shipping) and is cheaper or comparable to Amazon.

Could you create a separate account for the tablet without that credit card? Just curious.

but then how do you pay for things if/when you want to buy the little one something?

you either add the card then remove it, get a separate card, or find a way to use credits somehow -- but in the case of the latter two, Junior could still slam a few buttons and eat up all available funds on that card -- just without the impact of your regular card.

This is something that Apple really got right. My kids can initiate any kind of purchase they want (At least, those that are allowed based on Screen Time controls) but every purchase stops and waits for approval from me or my wife. Even if the item is free. No faffing about with credits, or extra cards, or setting limits.

Just use a bank with a decent service (like Revolut), create a separate card number for your kid (10s within the bank app), where you put more money when needed and can easily put the number on hold or activate it whenever you please.

Like this Revolut?

https://cybernews.com/security/revolut-data-breach-75-millio...

> After the publication went live, Revolut reassured that the review is still ongoing. "We have so far still found no indications of any breach."

> "We have checked the user and card identifiers contained in the alleged records against our systems, and none of them correspond to valid or genuine Revolut identifiers," the spokesperson said.

A bank that cannot be used in the browser has no decent service.

The parent had a practical problem. I told him what kind of simple banking feature would easily solve it. I also mentioned a bank, which has it for sure.

For sure, this feature is not a Revolut-exclusive. Plata from Mexico should also have this and much more, from what I have read.

If American/European banks don't have such a simple feature, this speaks volumes about them.

Your comment has a vibe of "a bank that doesn't have a local office has no decent service". To each their own, I guess.

>I also mentioned a bank

if you're not in the US. revolut in the US is a fintech group with a bunch of bank partners.

I mean, you can gift things when you purchase them, not sure why that can't be a way. But I still agree it's silly to have the customers find work arounds.

privacy.com lets you generate credit card numbers on the fly

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