Amazon credit-card reader poses challenge to Square | Hacker News Reader

Amazon credit-card reader poses challenge to Square

bbc.co.uk

19 pointsSeanDav14 comments

for a small business that has $500k in gross revenue through credit cards, this promotion saves them $5k - all of which goes straight to their bottom line. in most instances, this will probably be compelling enough to convince a switch. amazon's willingness to hemorrhage money as they move into a new market is ruthless.

Seems like a Faustian deal. 5K now so that amazon can use the data to put you out of business later.

I've seen these FUD conspiracy comments posted everywhere today. Not a fan of amazon in particular myself but I mean, come on, having some data is not enough to replace whole profitable businesses. Not to mentions all the restaurants and food trucks that will use this, I don't think amazon will start opening food trucks everywhere.

I am of course being a bit hyperbolic. Clearly food trucks, corner stores, and the like really only have upside here. However, boutique stores that cater upper-middle class customers may be giving up more than they bargain for by using Amazon's payment system. Perhaps they should be a bit skeptical.

A business that can go out of business, will go out of business no matter what

My last experiences with Square, were a charity event, a farmer's market, and kiteboarding lessons. In my experience, the Square's hardware is total shit, and I can't imagine these vendors care about anything but processing fees.

The stupid square reader that spins when you swipe is reason enough not to use them. This is just another $5000 reasons.

If all you do is sell the same generic boxed goods as everyone else then you may be right.

But there are plenty of businesses that this would work well for such as service businesses. Amazon won't spring up a tree trimming business overnight. Or what about small gyms, kids play places, bakeries, etc? Amazon can't turn those into 'showrooms' for things you can order from Amazon.com.

Rather than credit the user's bank directly, the company instead adds the sum to their Amazon Payments account

So no, for most small businesses, this will not pose a challenge to Square. I need my payments in my bank account, not in Amazon's

You can always get transfers from your Amazon payments account to your bank account

Whats the transfer schedule from Amazon payments to the bank account? Square schedule is next business day.

dude... rtfa

Scheduled Transfer Timing: In order to ensure that the funds are deposited to your bank account on the next business day, you must set up automatic daily transfers or manually transfer the funds from you Amazon Payments account to your bank account by 4 pm local time (4 pm PT for AK and HI). Not all banks have the ability to receive deposits within one business day. Contact your bank for details. Reserves may apply, including for manually keyed transactions.

Thanks dude, I asked the question before the localregister page was linked, bbc article doesn't mention this information.

http://localregister.amazon.com/help/201551280/transferring-...

tldr: "Amazon Local Register supports one-time, daily, or weekly automatic transfers. There are no fees associated with making transfers."

From Amazon Local Registers:

In order to ensure that the funds are deposited to your bank account on the next business day, you must set up automatic daily transfers or manually transfer the funds from your Amazon Payments account to your bank account by 4 pm local time (4 pm Pacific for AK and HI). Not all banks have the ability to receive deposits within one business day. Contact your bank for details. Reserves may apply, including for manually keyed transactions.

It seems that the funds can be directly deposited to bank accounts.

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