These Tools Let You Shop Online Without a Credit or Debit Card

Amazon Cash charges no fees to the consumer, PayPal My Cash has a $3.95 activation fee and PayNearMe encourages merchants to absorb the fees, but transactions with some merchants incur a fee that can be as high as $5.99, which is disclosed up front. Ryan Falvey, the managing director for Financial Solutions Lab at the Center for Financial Services Innovation, says this approach benefits everyone. “Certainly hidden fees can be bad for consumers, but they’re also probably not in the best long-term interest of the providers,” he says. “We find in our work, the more clear and transparent the fee structure, the better.”