Report: Amazon expands online payment program

Amazon is expanding its online payment subscription program to other online sellers, according to a report from Reuters.

{mosads}Through the program, Amazon users can make recurring payments — such as monthly utility bills or digital subscriptions — using the credit card data stored with Amazon, according to the report.

Amazon Vice President of Seller Services Tom Taylor told Reuters that online merchants will benefit from the program because consumers trust Amazon with continual access to their financial information.

“If you think about giving a merchant that you may not know very well the right to continue to charge your credit card in the future, you really want to know that a good relationship with Amazon stands behind that,” he said.

Some merchants may worry about giving data about its customers to Amazon, “which has a record of rapidly expanding into new areas and competing with sellers,” according to the report.

But Taylor told Reuters that Amazon will collect only the dollar amount of each transaction.