Friend finally pay you back for picking up burritos? Now you can buy something on Amazon. | Image: Venmo
Amazon’s adding a new payment option: Venmo. Starting on Tuesday, some customers in the US will be able to pay for orders using the popular money sending and receiving service, with availability in the country rolling out by Black Friday, or November 25th.
Using Venmo to pay for an Amazon order is relatively simple; to set it up as a payment method, tap “Select a Payment Method” during checkout and then “Add a Venmo account.” From there, you’ll be prompted to authorize Amazon to use your Venmo account and to choose where you want it to pull money from your balance, linked bank account, or eligible debit card. After agreeing, Amazon will ask you if you want to set it as your default payment method, and you can choose to pay with it whenever you’re ordering with the Amazon app or website.
PayPal, Venmo’s parent company, announced that this was coming late last year, but now, we’re finally getting to see it in action; it’s not every day that Amazon adds a third-party payment option to its service. We can also answer whether this means you can pay for, say, an Echo speaker with crypto: no, according to PayPal spokesperson Tom Hunter.