A checking account has certain benefits over a savings account, even though it offers no interest on the amount deposited in the account. There is usually no minimum balance required to be kept in the account, and it is usually opened so that the account holder can take care of the daily expenses from it. Savings accounts, on the other hand, are a good way to park an amount of money which might not be needed too frequently, so that it can earn interest.
When people shop on an e-commerce site, they usually use their credit cards or their checking accounts. But this poses a problem for the people below the age of 18 because they are not allowed to open checking accounts in banks. Truth be told, that segment of the customer base is not actively pursued by banks, but for e-commerce websites like Amazon, they are a prime target segment. So when they need to shop, they have to use their parents’ checking accounts or credit cards.
To accomplish this barrier, Amazon, the biggest e-tailer of them all, is thinking of allowing this segment to also have Amazon checking accounts which they can use to shop. For adults, Amazon does have the facility of allowing them to align their checking accounts to Amazon and make payments from those accounts. All that needs to be done is to select ‘Add a Checking Account’ at the payment and shipping stage of the checkout process. Apart from the bank account number, the bank routing number also needs to be the input. This facility is only open for people holding checking accounts in the US banks. The customer needs to ensure that the checking account being added is ACH enabled. To ensure that the checking account is of a bank, located in the country and the customer is a resident of the country, the customer also needs to add the driver’s license number or any other government approved and issued identity number. Usually, an adult needs to use credit cards or internet banking for Amazon purchase, and other types of accounts like savings accounts which are not allowed to be added to Amazon, but a checking account is the only type of account that can be added.
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These conditions are sought to be modified to enable minors also to have a checking account opened by Amazon. The identity details of the parent of the minor would be used, and the funding for the account would be made by the parents. Once the account is aligned, then the minor can use his or her own unique Amazon ID to shop conveniently from Amazon. The e-commerce company hopes that this will increase the transactions from this age group because they would not need to go back to their parents for every transaction, as long as the account is funded. This would get the minors hooked to Amazon from an early age, and Amazon hopes to build on its loyal customer base from an early age with this feature. It has been reported that Amazon would be tying up with a major bank to enable this feature.
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