How to Shop on Amazon and Pay in Naira

Amazon.com is a favourite destination for online shoppers. They offer a really wide variety of stuffs that are listed in their different categories.

Amazon.com however is targeted at US customers and mostly offers free shipping to US Addresses. They also offer limited shipping to many other countries across the world including Nigeria. In order to ship most other items to Nigeria, you just need to get a US shipping agent.

When it comes to shopping on global websites like Amazon.com from Nigeria, one of the basic things that we commonly use is a US dollar Visa or Mastercard.

In the past, many Nigerians didn't have access to credit or debit cards that were commonly accepted by Amazon such as the Visa and Mastercard brands but today, most banks even offer them funded with US dollars. Then we used to buy prepaid virtual credit cards or gift cards just to shop at Amazon and this was really a bit costly.

Due to the fact that most Nigerians have easy access to the Naira than the dollar and mostly hold their income in the Nigerian Naira, it only made sense for banks to also provide payment cards that were branded by the big brands and still funded in Naira.

I've used quite a variety of card types to make payments on Amazon becuase they accept Credit and debit cards powered by Visa and Mastercard as well as their own gift cards. The thing about gift cards is that you can't convert it to cash and so it's only virtual money that is waiting to be spent on Amazon.

With a Naira Visa or Masterard however, Nigerians are now able to shop on US websites like Amazon.com, be able to buy anything they want and still make payments from their bank account in Naira.

I've been used to buying US dollars from those black market traders just to fund my USD cards and so since Amazon now accepts Naira cards and even bills in that currency, I thought that it is only fitting for me to also try and make payments in Naira and see what the exchange rate is like.

Unlike USD debit and credit cards issued in Nigeria, Naira cards don't come with the option of choosing your exchange rate but you'd be given the bank's official rate at the time of the transaction. With a USD card, you'd be the one to fund your card in US dollars at the rate you purchased it which is mostly fixed. With a Naira card, the USD rate against the Naira is not fixed but varies with the bank's daily rate.

One good thing about shopping on Amazon.com and paying with a Naira card is that you get to see the exchange rate before confirming the payment and that's exactly how much you will be billed in your bank account.

One of the cheapest things one can buy on Amazon with a Naira card is a gift card because it is a virtual sort of money you can sue to settle your bills on Amazon in the future. You can buy gift cards from as low as $0.15 to as much as $2,000.

I tried out buying gift cards with my newly issued Naira Visa debit card and it worked. I was able to buy some credit which I used in offsetting a bill for a $100 Toshiba laptop.

Here is how you can make payments on Amazon with your Naira card using a Visa card as an example.

How to shop on AMazon and pay in Naira
========================
- I got a Visa Naira debit card from Union bank Nigeria
- I changed my I-PIN using an ATM and also requested the bank to allow me make online transactions on US websites.
- I logged on to my Amazon account and added items to my shopping cart
- Proceeded to make payment and entered my Visa Naira card details e.g. Card number, Card name, expiry date and CVV code
- I chose my card currency as the Nigerian Naira
- Reviewed the final bill and also viewed the exchange rate(About N172 at that time)
- Confirmed the purchase
- The transaction was successful
- My bank account in Nigeria was debited in a few minutes
- I got delivery of the gift cards that I ordered by Email

Amazon.com now accepts Naira cards and you can easily use it to pay anytime you want. If you are unsatisfied with the exchange rate for the day, you could always try it out another day.

Tip: You can buy gift cards from Amazon.com during periods when the Naira is strong(like November to December) in order to save money on your exchange rate.