Q&A for How to Buy on Amazon

You should never share your debit or credit card password with any Amazon seller unless you are at the checkout page requiring you to enter these details. And besides, the only card password you'll need aren't any passwords you set up online - the three digit pin that can be found on the front or back of the card are those digits you'll need to input for the purchase to be sent out Amazon's door.

No. Amazon orders can't be placed by phone. Amazon can help walk you through placing an order, if you can do the work, but will never take the order through their phone conversations.

Make sure there are enough funds in the account. Amazon tends to cancel orders until all funds can be paid out of your account. Contact Amazon for full details of what you can do to help them create the order, so you can get it to ship. Amazon doesn't take any money from you until the item ships. For those that are not "fulfillment by Amazon," you'll have to wait at least 30 minutes for the item to complete the transaction - These Marketplace sellers don't see any of your order until that window is clear.

Amazon's rules state that you must be at least 13 years of age to sign up for an account. However, you must be 18 to make a purchase (since you'll need to input this data into your account before a purchase), unless you can obtain enough money in gift card funds to pay for the purchase or receive a gift card-debit card that has a major card company attached that you can input to pay for the entire purchase price.

No. Amazon isn't an auction site. It is a commercial site where you search the product and purchase the product just like any other commercial shopping site online.

Line 1 is generally for your address. Line 2 is for additional info, such as apartment number or suite name. For example, if your address was "123 Sesame Street Suite ABC," line 1 would contain "123 Sesame St" and line 2 would contain "Suite ABC."

Whatever payment methods you have on the Amazon website will be available on the phone. Usually your one-click method (if set up) will be the default and will almost always take precedence over other methods.

You can't pay in cash. Amazon is an Internet-only company, and only transacts business with the major credit card companies. You can also send them a check or have the funds direct debited from a checking account with a bank routing number and account number.

Yes! Amazon also accepts most major credit and debit cards; some orders also allow checks. If you don't have any of those, you can set up a gift card-like account that you can put money into.

Amazon requires you to set up your own customized personal account for you to buy products from their website. Follow the details: http://www.wikihow.com/Sign-up-on-Amazon. If you've forgotten your password later on, they have ways to retrieve your password right from the sign-in page.

This will depend on your definition of safe. Although you can save your payment data for access in the future, they will never scam or spam you. You make the rules as to when products are ready to be purchased.

If you ever experience a problem, contact Amazon.

It's destination doesn't matter, as long as the destination is within the USA.

Not exactly, but having a credit card is better to make the ordering process so much smoother and the products ship out Amazon's door so much faster than paying with a check. Most Amazon Marketplace sellers can't even take checks for their orders. If you have a gift card code, you can enter gift card money and only that money available can be used to purchase items in lieu of a credit card.

Although a search for that herbal medicine came up with no matches, Amazon does carry some herbal medicines; their over the counter selection is quite wide. Search the Amazon site to find what medicines you need. Try alternate brand names for the medicines along with their generic names to find out if they carry them. If not, you'll be best off dealing with your local herbal store or supermarket pharmacy for this item instead.

Payment is generally taken for items at the time of Amazon's shipment and never before. However, for those that aren't coming directly from Amazon, but through their own Marketplace sellers, your order will be billed no earlier than 30 minutes after you placed the order.

Promotional codes are another way of saying "gift cards" or "coupons."

Yes, but there are additional fees on the Checkout page that you must pay for in advance. Depending on who is in your address book, as long as you type the name in the boxes, you can send it to anyone you want - gift-wrapped and all.

Amazon has a great search feature. On top of searching for products, if you know the exact barcode number to the product, you can search by that. There is a wealth of products that can be bought on the site. There are no lists available.

Unfortunately, there is no way to demand an exact day. However, some sellers will give you shipping confirmation numbers that will give you a general idea of when the item will arrive at your house.

Generally, there are no additional "transportation charges" for the items you buy. However, there are shipping charges. They can vary depending on what you are buying, whether or not the item is being shipped directly from Amazon, as well as your local sales tax rates, which are often added to the cost of your purchase.

Although you must have at least one payment card saved at the time of ordering, you are able to remove that card from your account after making the purchase. Go to the "Your Accounts" page where it lists details of how to remove cards from your account, and follow through with Amazon's method.

Sometimes, although most Amazon sellers just use Delivery Confirmation (which just provides for proof of delivery and doesn't require a signature). There are a select few sellers on Amazon Marketplace that choose to use Signature Confirmation - it's best to check with the seller to find out what type of confirmation they'll be using, as each order could differ as to shippers needs. For those buying right from Amazon or those purchasing with a "fulfillment by Amazon", Amazon doesn't tend to send any of their products out with signature confirmation, but will send it out so that you do have delivery confirmation and so you will have a tracking number for your package delivery.

Only Amazon gift cards can be applied to orders.

Depending on how much your gift card is worth and how much your grand total in your order is, you probably could.

Generally, there is no difference in product availability for Prime members vs. regular Amazon users. It's just that Prime members can get special discounts and lower/faster shipping. You should be able to purchase the product without purchasing Prime.