Amazon Payments Rejection?

February 14, 2006 1:09 PM

Why is Amazon not letting me use Amazon payments?

I occasionally sell books online, mostly on half.com, but half is sort of waning marketshare-wise and I'd like to list on Amazon Marketplace. I tried to sign up for amazon payments (their paypal dealie) in the past and was rejected. You provide your checking account info like you would for any direct deposit transaction. Amazon, I've heard, doesn't tell you why you are rejected (once again seemingly based only on providing a bank account number and bank routing number, which is not much to base a decision on).

I've asked them, but I don't expect an answer in a hurry, so does anyone know the mysterious reason amazon rejects people for their marketplace sellers accounts?


Extra facts:

I've never lodged a complaint of any kind with amazon, I have bought a resonable amount from amazon itself and it's used book markets.

posted by Divine_Wino to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Could you have mistyped your account number or routing number? That happened to me when setting up a different (non-Amazon) payment account. The payment service notified me that their transfer attempt had come back as rejected from my bank. I called my bank and they told me the account number was probably incorrect. I went back to the form and found out I had entered the number wrong.

It looks like you won't find anything out from Amazon:

"However, due to the proprietary nature of the Amazon Payments application process, we cannot share the reasons for failed applications, nor can we detail the criteria by which applications are evaluated."

posted by mbrubeck at 1:21 PM on February 14, 2006

"However, due to the proprietary nature of the Amazon Payments application process, we cannot share the reasons for failed applications, nor can we detail the criteria by which applications are evaluated."

That is what I am talking about, I'm just wondering if anyone had an inkling of what that was based on?

Also, thanks everyone, as always.
posted by Divine_Wino at 1:36 PM on February 14, 2006

Using just the information you provide they are probably checking it against a service like Checkcare. They aren't doing a traditional credit check because whenever you are rejected they have to give you a free copy of the credit report used in turning you down. They would also need your SSN and your approval to check it.

It could also be nothing more than them not wanting to use their service with certain banks or newer accounts. Make sure you are using a larger bank (ie no credit unions) and an account that is at least a year old.
posted by Ateo Fiel at 6:59 AM on February 15, 2006

Thanks to both of you.
posted by Divine_Wino at 7:54 AM on February 15, 2006