My First Impressions of Amazon Cash
First of all, a disclaimer; This blog is affiliated to Amazon but I have not been asked by them to review this service.
That said, Amazon Cash is a service that was announced in June 2018 that allows people to add funds to their Amazon gift card account at a participating retailer by using cash or debit, instead of using a credit card online.
This can be quite useful for students and people who don’t have credit cards. And yesterday I decided to try it out, to take advantage of the offer I had mentioned on this blog two days back so I printed a bar code from the site and went to the nearest participating retailer to load money into my account.
The procedure is relatively easy – They scan your bar code from your printout or Amazon.ca app (or punch in your phone number), you give them the amount you want to add to your accounts and they give you a receipt. But unfortunately, you may encounter cashiers and staff at these participating retailers that are unaware that their store offers this service.
My local Circle K convenience store was listed as a participant on the Amazon.ca web site but the staff member there had no idea what I was talking about. And when I found someone that knew how to add funds to my account, miles away at a Canada Post Outlet, he told me that very few people use the service there and that he just learned how to handle Amazon Cash deposits a few days back.
I suspect this payment method is likely more popular near colleges and universities, some of which have shops and bookstores that are listed as participating retailers. And in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic.
I guess I could have called ahead to make sure the convenience store staff knew how to add funds to my account. But shouldn’t they know how to do it by now, two years after it had been activated? Or have some of the smaller retailers stopped participating?
I may still consider using it in the future at the Canada Post outlets and participating wireless stores, who are more likely to have a handle on this, regardless of the spotty coverage.
Keep Those Receipts !
A new virus has been detected by Seculert on point of sale terminals in the United States, Britain and Canada.
“Dexter” forwards information from debit and credit cards directly to fraudsters who can duplicate cards.
Seculert estimates that hundreds of terminals have been infected, in 40 nations, so it’s best to keep an eye out for odd transactions on your bank statements and credit card bills.
You should also consider enabling email and/or mobile alerts on your accounts, as an extra security measure.
Update On Playstation Network Breach
It appears that Playstation Network and Qriocity users can breathe more easily when it comes to their credit card information.
Sony has stated that a vital piece of information related to purchases, the card security code, was NOT stored or archived by their system.
This code, which is usually three or four digits long, is used to confirm purchases online and by phone. It is printed on the back on Visa and Mastercard credit cards, next to the signature strip, and in the front of many American Express cards, just above the credit card number.
This card verification code expires with the credit card and another code is issued whenever new cards are sent out. So if the credit card you used on the above mentioned networks was about to expire, you should have no problem.
Furthermore, with the introduction of chip cards and services like Visa‘s Verified by Visa and Mastercard‘s Securecode services, information gathered from the security breach would not likely be useable. But I would definately advise vigilance in regards to purchases, just in case.
Canada’s major credit card companies had adopted Zero Liability programs years back for unauthorized purchases so i’m guessing the issue wont cause many problems, though it should be noted that Sony will NOT be asking people to provide personal or credit card information via email or by phone.
BTW, Sony has stated that some of the services will be reactivated this week and some of their users will be eligible for a free month of Playstation Plus. Details can be found on their official blog.