Can one really use Paypal on Amazon?
The answer is: YES, sort of.
Paypal is owned by eBay, which is a direct competition of Amazon. They’d probably never integrate their payment systems, but there’s an indirect way to do this. We can engage in a long heated discussion as to why Amazon won’t take Paypal; and why people would want to insist using Paypal on Amazon when they could easily choose other payment options. But I’m not going to indulge you. Well, okay. Just a few reasons why people would like to use Paypal on Amazon:
- They have enough Paypal balance that they want to use right away (bank transfers can take at least 3 days).
- They only want their credit card information stored in Paypal, not on Amazon’s (or many other website’s) database.
- They feel that Paypal is more convenient and/or secure.
- They want to track all online transactions in one place.
Using Paypal on Amazon (the workaround):
- Apply for a Paypal debit card. Go to https://www.paypal-prepaid.com/ or log in to your Paypal account and go to: My Account > Withdraw > Paypal Debit MasterCard.
- Wait for your card in the mail (it will be delivered the next business day).
- Activate the card by calling the telephone number attached with the card.
- Use the card on Amazon as any other MasterCard debit/credit card.
Although it was not explicitly written on the application terms and conditions, it looks like the Paypal debit card is only available for US residents or US credit card holders.
So, for Pinoys, you may have to have a relative, or US-issued identification to be able to use Paypal when buying on Amazon.
