Amazon Allowance(amazon.com) |
Amazon Allowance(amazon.com) |
But I don't think this one will stick around for very long. Prepaid cash/debit cards and automated deposits are an older and more proven way of doing this (not to mention just handing your kids $20 in cash every week). By giving them something that is accepted everywhere, you teach them how to handle limited amounts of money and how to resist temptations -- if I drop $5 on gas station snacks, I've just burned up a sizeable chunk of my allowance on something that will be gone in 10 minutes. Giving an allowance is great to teach young teenagers how to handle money before they get their own job, but I don't see Amazon breaking into this and locking kids into buying only from Amazon.
Best plan for teenagers is a joint checking account (dedicated to the child's use) at your bank, with a debit card they can use for day-to-day spending. You can do allowance, etc with transfers, and most bankd will play ball as long as one person on the account (the parent) is 18.
What about those prepaid cards you can buy for cash at B&M stores? I'm pretty sure you can use those online.
One firm that's was trying to do kid payments was Virtual Piggy (now Oink): http://www.oink.com
I thought all the age-of-13 stuff, specifically, was because you can't legally enter yourself into a contract when you're younger than 13. Which is to say, you can't accept EULAs or Terms of Service (or you can, but they'll have no legal force.)
Instead of my kids accumulating more junk, they learn the skills of hiring and delegating.
Don't want to mow the lawn in this heat? Use your allowance to somebody else to do it. As long as the job is done they will earn their allowance.
I just need a way to make sure they're not outsourcing their homework or paying somebody buy them alcohol.
Of course, if there's no life-lesson, why not just cut out the middle-man and have a local chore marketplace where kids from all around the neighbourhood can directly bid on the contract to mow your lawn. (Mostly kidding, but that'd be somewhat interesting for people who don't have kids, and don't need a full-on gardener.)
Let my kids have a debit card and let them use ATM's and smart phone apps just like I do, even better if its designed to be useable by children to encourage good banking behaviors.
Then this could easily be used for accepting payments for services or sales. Since I anyways spend on amazon, better accept payments this way without any fee...
http://www.amazon.com/b?node=11261610011
Not sure if it's new or not, recently got a call about getting into it though we declined as we're a small shop & already happy with the level of service we get via Prime.
Some people even consider COPPA to be a form of censorship. It creates such a huge legal burden on websites if they allow < 13 year olds, that most websites have to ban them, thus limiting their right to speech.
http://www.lawchek.com/Library1/_books/contract/qanda/legala...
One interesting feature I wasn't aware of is that this does not generally apply to "necessities" or employment contracts.
"Don't ever ask/command/order someone to do something that you would not do yourself."
Interpret how you like, but to me it means, "Get your hands dirty and appreciate what it takes to do a job before you delegate."
Groupies for the modern times we live in, if you wish.
Also... it beats the discount I got back when I worked fast food. Not saying some places don't do better, but I do fear the entitlement of my peers here.
On entitlement, It's not entitlement. If Amazon can't compete or doesn't want to compete on perks, that is their preprogative. Entitlement is not in Amazon's vocabulary. They have no concept of entitlement. When Amazon employees are forced to wake up at 3am to fix something it's not because Amazon feels entitled to their sleep time. It's because Amazon has devolved into barbarianism and raw power to force people to do things is all that matters there. There is no concept of entitlement because entitlement would mean some rule of law exists. The only reason a discount probably exists is because there is some small psychological benefit to the company that is greater than the (tiny) cost. So when someone feels they should get something more from an employer in that environment it is simply reciprocal hostility.
It is healthy for the industry for people to have and share this information though. Employees in every industry talk about how they and their peers are compensated, and share scuttlebutt about which companies have better pay and benefits than others as a way of ensuring that they're getting a competitive wage.
Based on what they are charging for it, basically yes. They must lose money on it though. My friend ordered a fridge on Amazon prime. I bet 48 hour shipping on a fridge is pretty close to the cost of amazon prime.
Among the downsides of being in Canada is paying higher prices for anything that is not health care.
On the other hand, people are often irrational and do care that much. Which makes it kind of weird that Amazon doesn't provide free Prime to their employees, because that $100 value (and what's their actual cost?) probably buys a lot more than $100 of employee satisfaction.
So while I certainly wouldn't say that Amazon is somehow mistreating their workers by not giving them this stuff, I do think it's kind of weird that they don't.