As you may know, you will no longer be able to send money person-to-person using Amazon Payments starting on October 13th. Today is October 2nd, so the $1,000 limit for sending money to another person reset yesterday for the final time. If you have any Amazon Payments accounts, you should make your final payments soon (and definitely by October 12th).
I first used Amazon Payments for mileage purposes sometime in 2010 – it’s been a great way to get $1,000 of simple and easy spending on a credit card. My first mileage credit card required $3,000 spending for 100,000 miles, and I got most (if not all) of that done via Amazon Payments. I’m pretty amazed at how long Amazon Payments lasted and I presume that the change in program has to do with Amazon Local Register, which I’ve yet to test out thoroughly.
It’s also worth noting that when you withdraw Amazon Payments funds to your checking account, banks often count it as a direct deposit. I’ve used this technique in the past to avoid monthly fees on checking accounts that I needed to keep open in order to get a bonus (such as the Chase Checking bonus for users with Freedom cards). I didn’t want to keep unnecessary balances in those accounts, so I sent them my Amazon Payments withdrawal. Since banks saw these withdrawals as direct deposits, they waived fees. I don’t require this technique anymore, but if you do, you may want to double-check any bank accounts you have.
