American LLC selling in Europe - Credit card workaround?

[Qoge]

Hey guys!
I'm an Italian Amazon seller and new to this forum (it seems to be a great forum, wish i found it earlier! :D).
So yeah here's my situation:
- I want to create a ghost account in order to distribute the business risk over more accounts. You never know... one can get suspended for the most stupid reason anytime...
- I sell in Europe right now through an Italian LLC equivalent company. They do have my name somewhere in their database (it shows under Beneficial owner information). When i set up the account, they asked for utility bills and stuffs to register my name i guess. I'm not sure if they registered my date of birth, it doesn't appear on the "Beneficial owner information" page though.
- I set up an American LLC under my name and planned to create the new account with the LLC entity. I managed to get a Worldfirst bank account assigned to the American LLC.
- However I have neither a credit card linked to the LLC nor a proper bank account with a traditional bank.

Questions:
1) As I told you the LLC only has a Worldfirst "bank account". Will this cause problems during the account validation process? What can i do to maximize my chances to get through the account verification?
2) I don't have a credit card linked to the newly registered LLC. Can I use my own? I'll choose to use one that doesn't have any links with the Italian company amazon account, but still, my name would be on it. And if they do proper research, they might be able to link it to my first amazon account.
3) Should I always use a VPN and set myself somewhere in the States? So I can appear as a proper american LLC doing business in the Italian market? Or is it better to set the VPN from Italy? We need to take in account that all the products are in Italy anyway and my plan is to bring my inventory directly to the UPS center for them to ship to Amazon's warehouse

Looking forward to hearing from you, guys!
Cheers

[ashi]

welcome to forum

[Beautiful]

Worldfirst and payoneer work fine

You can add your own debit or credit card to your seller shop, make sure its never been used before it has funds to cover fees

[Qoge]

Originally Posted by Beautiful

Worldfirst and payoneer work fine

You can add your own debit or credit card to your seller shop, make sure its never been used before it has funds to cover fees

1) cheers! Cool to know this. So I only need to register a valid credit card with funds in it and entitle it to the newly created LLC right? From my understanding, they can't really verify whether there's a correspondence between the real card owner's name and the newly created amazon account owner right? Correct me if i'm wrong

2) Is there a way for them to link my newly created account to my old amazon account through my personal name? If I'm not mistaken, they ask for the beneficial owner's identity when verifying the account and they might notice that the old account and the newly created account have the same beneficial owner (from the LLC company formation files). Does this matter to them?

[Qoge]

anyone can help? Cheers!!

[Arkin]

1) Can't really? Not sure I follow you on your follow up question. If the name on the card relates to a previous account, I don't know what they'll do with it, but I would assume it would be another piece of the puzzle to them when it comes to linking an account.

2) Any similarities between two accounts will be at least some kind of flag in their monstrous linking system. Be it same names, same items, same address, etc. Will it be enough to get your account reviewed by a person? I can't say for sure, but you assume the risk if you choose to go through with it. I would avoid using anything that would correlate. You're required to enter the first and last name of the owner, but Amazon doesn't make any kind of substantial check as to how that name you entered relates to the business entity. That is, they don't go to any state office website and check that the name is in the company formation files. At least not via any kind of automated method. I'm not sure if an Amazon rep would go that far either. They do, however, report that name to the IRS in a 1099 come tax time. At which point, hypothetically, as long as you legitimately pay those taxes, you should be fine.

[Qoge]

@Arkin: thanks so much for your help and your tips!

I think all my confusion comes from a few points I read on the ghost Amazon Guide that are not clear to me.
1) On page 24 (titled "Option three: Using a DBA/LLC/Assumed name") it says that it'd be best for me to create a LLC name that sounds like a person's name and then to use that name on my account. What does this mean exactly? Say that my company is called Britney Spears LLC. When filling out the forms for the account creation on Amazon should I put first name Britney and last name Spears? Is that what the guide is suggesting me to do?
2) And if so, how should I fill credit card details in the charge method section? From what i understood from the guide, and later confirmed by Beautiful's reply, I can input any credit card as long as there's sufficient credit in it. But what about the card details? Again, should i fill Britney as name and Spears as last name?
3) And what about the address to be filled in the credit card details page? Do I have to input the real one or anything would do fine?

[Beautiful]

Originally Posted by Qoge

1) cheers! Cool to know this. So I only need to register a valid credit card with funds in it and entitle it to the newly created LLC right? From my understanding, they can't really verify whether there's a correspondence between the real card owner's name and the newly created amazon account owner right? Correct me if i'm wrong

2) Is there a way for them to link my newly created account to my old amazon account through my personal name? If I'm not mistaken, they ask for the beneficial owner's identity when verifying the account and they might notice that the old account and the newly created account have the same beneficial owner (from the LLC company formation files). Does this matter to them?

make sure the card has never been used before on amazon, is active, and has enough balance to cover fees, at least 1st month seller fees until you have an amazon balance

mismatching names/billing should work the majority of the if you're adding your own card, same goes with bank -- so the information is never linked as its your new Amazon Stealth details

[Qoge]

@Beautiful: thank you so much for your reply!

Could someone help address these three points below? Please forgive these noob questions and I understand some of you tried to answer them already, but i still haven't quite got it. It's just that I'm brand new to this stealth account concept...
I think all my confusion comes from a few points I read on the ghost Amazon Guide that are still not clear to me.

1) On page 24 (titled "Option three: Using a DBA/LLC/Assumed name") it says that it'd be best for me to create a LLC name that sounds like a person's name and then to use that name on my account. What does this mean exactly? Say that my company is called Britney Spears LLC. When filling out the forms for the account creation on Amazon should I put first name Britney and last name Spears? Is that what the guide is suggesting me to do? Just need a confirmation from you.

2) And if so, how should I fill credit card details in the charge method section? From what i understood from the guide, and later confirmed by Beautiful's reply, I can input any credit card as long as there's sufficient credit in it. But what about the card details? Again, should i fill Britney as name and Spears as last name in a way that matches completely my account right?

3) And what about the address to be filled in the credit card details page? Do I have to input the real one or anything would do fine?

[Beautiful]

1. If you create an LLC for Blue Ribbons LLC, your company name would be Blue Ribbons LLC, the first and last name doesn't matter on the Amazon store itself

2. You would use your first and last name, or the company name for the billing name

3. The address must be unique and never used before in anyway on amazon, otherwise you would get linked

[jviga]

@Qoge: I'm interested to understand better how you have opened an LLC from Italy, I cannot send you a private message, could you please let me know? Thanks!

[Qoge]

Originally Posted by Beautiful

1. If you create an LLC for Blue Ribbons LLC, your company name would be Blue Ribbons LLC, the first and last name doesn't matter on the Amazon store itself

2. You would use your first and last name, or the company name for the billing name

3. The address must be unique and never used before in anyway on amazon, otherwise you would get linked

Cheers!


@jviga: Ciao! It's actually really easy to incorporate in the US. Just go on https://www.incfile.com/ or a similar website. And they do all the paperwork for you. And it's cheap! The only real limit is that you'll probably need to visit the US in person to open a proper business bank account.