Amazon Payments: the PayPal alternative.

You might have wondered already why Amazon does not accept Paypal when you want to buy your new phone, book or camera gear.  The reason is obvious: Paypal is owned by it’s competitor, eBay.  Amazon wouldn’t be Amazon if it would leave it at that and just stick to credit card payments.  The online giant has now started its own online payment service.

Amazon payments is very similar to Paypal: it allows individuals to link a credit card to an online account (your Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk,… account).  With your login you can send payments to other individuals by using their email adress.  But it doesn’t stop there: businesses can incorporate an Amazon check out button in their online  shop, just as the very familiar Paypal button.

We haven’t seen any uses of this new service in Europe yet, but Paypal is likely to get competition in major Amazon countries as Germany, UK, France as residents in these countries are getting more and more used to the Amazon shopping experience.

For our readers in Europe, and in particular those countries where Amazon no local online shop yet – eg Belgie (Belgium)  and Nederland (Netherlands) :  you can compare prices Amazon Germany, France and UK here.