Amazon: Don’t Worry, We’ll Bill You Later

Online retailer Amazon.com has struck a deal with online payment service Bill Me Later that enables Amazon.com customers to shop for products online without disclosing credit card or banking information. Once registered with Bill Me Later, customers just offer their date of birth and last four digits of their Social Security number when completing their purchase and, if approved, Bill Me Later sends customers a bill via standard mail. Customers have up to 25 days to pay for their purchases, or can pay over time using deferred payment options. Bill Me Later also offers a Zero Fraud Liability protection plain to protect consumers against unauthorized purchases.

“Bill Me Later has developed a very customer-centric method to make online shopping even easier,” said Amazon.com VP of payments Matt Swann, in a statement. “We are pleased to make the convenience of Bill Me Later available to our tens of millions of Amazon customers.”

Bill Me Later is already up and running on hundreds on online retailers, but the deal with Amazon.com puts the service in front of millions of online consumers. Bill Me Later is also subsidizing shipping costs with some retail partners, and in some cases offering to let customers defer payments by up to 90 days.

The deal also has Amazon.com taking an equity stake in Bill Me Later; terms of the payment were not disclosed, but Amazon expects the transaction to complete in the first quarter of 2008.