I logged into my Amazon Associates Dashboard to check my reports. 136.34$ unpaid balance. I could finally get paid after reaching the 100 dollar mark. Time for the daunting question. How does Amazon pay affiliates?
Are you interested in becoming an Amazon affiliate? Or are you a seasoned affiliate marketer ready to get paid for all your hard work? Whatever the case, you must be interested in how you are going to get paid when the promised day comes.
Understanding The Chaos Of The Amazon Associates Dashboard
One thing that may confuse you about the way Amazon pays affiliates is that your affiliate sales are not considered viable to get paid at the end of their respective month. All affiliate sales become eligible for you to get paid after 2 months. I suppose this is done to account for returns, however, it confused the heck out of me when I first joined the Amazon Associates program.
An example that will help you understand is the following.
Suppose you make 15 dollars worth of affiliate sales in September. You will be seeing those inside your Affiliate Dashboard after 1 or 2 days. However, those sales won’t be eligible to cash out at the end of September. They will be after 2 months, thus at the end of November. That’s when those sales will show up on the payment history tab at your reports. When the payment history balance reaches 100$ for check or 10$ for direct bank deposit or Amazon gift card, that’s when you can get paid.
With this out of the way, let’s look at how Amazon actually pays affiliates.
How Does Amazon Actually Pay Affiliates?
Amazon pays in 3 different ways. The first option is by direct deposit in your bank account and is probably the best one. You can get paid when your unpaid balance reaches 10$. Unfortunately, for some reason (tax reasons I suspect?) Amazon provides this way of getting paid to affiliates based only on the United States. But what about affiliates from other countries?
They get left with two options. The first one is to get paid by an Amazon gift card. This is a method you can use once you reach the 10 dollar mark. However, for me (and I suppose for other people who aim to rely on their affiliate income) this is a method that won’t be of value unless you are on a shopping spree.
The second and last way Amazon affiliates can get paid worldwide is by check. With this way, you can cash out at 100$. Not particularly interested in buying stuff from Amazon but instead interested in actually getting paid for my work, I chose the check method.
Ready To Cash Out My Check From Amazon
The check actually arrived I believe close to 20 days later. Thrilled to cash out I went to my nearest bank. What they told me was that the United States of America is no longer paying checks in dollars outside the US, since they wanted to control the flow of dollars. Bummer.
Not trusting what they told me fully I decided to pay a visit to another bank. More of the same. They also told me that people in Greece who were getting paid their US pensions by checks had a huge problem getting paid and had to open bank accounts in dollars. The only alternative I had was to get the check paid the way companies do, which would result in it taking a lot of time to happen and me having to actually pay to get paid my money. Not my cup of tea.
The Search For Alternatives
Disappointed, I returned home and scoured the web for alternatives. In my search, I found that the decision for checks in dollars to not get paid worldwide anymore was official and active since June 2016. How could Amazon not know about it? I was infuriated for not being able to get paid for the work I had done.
Googling around I found that people from other countries, like India, had similar problems in getting their checks paid. How could the Amazon Associates Program, maybe the biggest affiliate program worldwide, provide their affiliates so little flexibility? How could I be working for months on end on my website and only be able to buy random stuff from Amazon in return?
Before we move on, a little disclaimer. I’m not aware of the situation in all countries worldwide. I’m just sharing what actually happened in my country and what I have been informed has happened to other people from different countries as well. The situation may be better in your country though. Moving on.
Chatting With Amazon Reps
My next step was to contact the Amazon Associates representatives, who are always polite and helpful I must say. However, the answers I got disappointed me. They didn’t try to find a solution for me to get paid (they probably were told to not do so). They just answered that they provide payment by check or payment by gift card. I was furious.
Luckily, one of the representatives mentioned that some worldwide affiliates were using third-party services to solve this problem. Not getting a name for those third-party services I decided to search on my own.
Enter Payoneer
After some digging, I finally came upon the online payment service Payoneer. Payoneer is not endorsed by Amazon, even though other big affiliate networks, such as CJ Affiliate are officially using them to pay their affiliates.
However, Payoneer lists getting paid from Amazon as one of their services and even provide the testimonials of some users. Not interested in the possibility of crying about my money, I signed up for an account. Before moving on be sure to get inspired by this young internet marketer who uses Payoneer.
The process was pretty straightforward and pretty easy. Payoneer provided me with US bank account details on my name, that I could use for the Amazon Associates Program. And that’s what I did.
I asked the Amazon reps to cancel my check and reissue the payment to my new bank account details. They warned me they didn’t endorse Payoneer (if I was using that service) and that they couldn’t trace the payment after the money reached the bank account. I proceeded anyway.
Finally, Money In My Bank Account
After some days I received a payment from Amazon on my Payoneer account. Shortly after the money appeared on my Payoneer balance. I then asked them to withdraw the money to the bank account I had provided and they did so in euros after approximately 5 days. They only kept a really small percentage as a fee for the service. I was thrilled to actually receive real money, to say the least. And that’s something I couldn’t have done without Payoneer.
I don’t know why Amazon doesn’t provide alternative ways for their worldwide affiliates to get paid. I’m also not sure if they are aware of the problem and are just “pushing” their affiliates indirectly to use Payoneer or a similar service to get paid. It just seems unprofessional for such a huge affiliate program to not provide viable options for their own affiliates to get paid. I can only guess that it’s better for their business doing it this way. I hope they just have their hands tied or are not fully aware of the problem for some affiliates.
Getting Paid From Amazon Using Payoneer
At the end of the day the problem exists. And I just wanted to share my method of solving it that may prove to be helpful for others undergoing the same or a similar problem.
So, if you want to get paid as an Amazon Affiliate worldwide and do so seamlessly, look no further than Payoneer. Because of their service, I was able to get paid without any hassle from my end. They also provide other services that help you get paid or pay others yourself in different currencies. I haven’t used them for any of these purposes but I’m sure the experience must be equally satisfying.
Conclusion
In this blog post, I shared my personal experience on how Payoneer saved the day for many affiliates like me by providing a seamless payment solution. I hope this information was helpful and insightful for my readers.
If you’re interested in learning more about affiliate marketing and the different programs available, I highly recommend checking out our review of Wealthy Affiliate. With its comprehensive training and support, Wealthy Affiliate is a fantastic starting point for anyone looking to get into the exciting world of affiliate marketing.
As always, I urge you to leave any questions or thoughts you have in the comments section below.