Answers.Body: <p>I don't believe there is any way that anyone outside of Amazon could truly answer this. The best anyone could hope for would be to guess or speculate, and that's not what this site is about.</p>
  
  <p>As for your comment that "authors selling books in multiple countries could have hundreds of dollars due them", that is simply not correct. The threshold you mention is only applied to authors who choose to be paid by check, and the threshold is only $100. If an author is selling any books in foreign markets, I can guarantee they aren't counting on those sales to pay the bills. Those who are fortunate enough to sell really well in foreign markets will likely have no problem at all meeting that threshold.</p>
  
  <p>Furthermore, if an author chooses to use Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT), then there is no threshold, regardless of where the sales occur. That reason alone is why the vast majority of authors use EFT. If there are any authors who ARE losing "hundreds of dollars", then they can easily resolve this by doing the same.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-12-11T03:26:24.230Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-12-11T03:26:24.230Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Steven Drennon
Body: <p>A recent answer <a href="https://ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/2582/royalties-on-self-published-ebooks-on-amazon/2607#2607">here</a> indicates Amazon has a pretty restrictive payment policy. So minor authors selling books in multiple countries could have hundreds of dollars due them that have not yet hit the 'threshold'.</p>
  
  <p>In the US there are rules about <a href="http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/get-answers/bank-accounts/inactive-accounts/faq-bank-accounts-inactive-accounts-01.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">accounts considered inactive or unclaimed</a>.  But I am not sure how it applies to Amazon. </p>
  
Tags: <amazon>
Title: How much does Amazon make on Royalties earned but not paid?
UserDisplayName: James Jenkins
ThreadText: # How much does Amazon make on Royalties earned but not paid?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2014-12-08)
  
  A recent answer [here](https://ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/2582/royalties-on-self-published-ebooks-on-amazon/2607#2607) indicates Amazon has a pretty restrictive payment policy. So minor authors selling books in multiple countries could have hundreds of dollars due them that have not yet hit the 'threshold'.
  
  In the US there are rules about [accounts considered inactive or unclaimed](http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/get-answers/bank-accounts/inactive-accounts/faq-bank-accounts-inactive-accounts-01.html). But I am not sure how it applies to Amazon.
  
  **Tags:** amazon
  
  
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  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2014-12-11. Score: 3 | Accepted answer
  
  I don't believe there is any way that anyone outside of Amazon could truly answer this. The best anyone could hope for would be to guess or speculate, and that's not what this site is about.
  
  As for your comment that "authors selling books in multiple countries could have hundreds of dollars due them", that is simply not correct. The threshold you mention is only applied to authors who choose to be paid by check, and the threshold is only $100. If an author is selling any books in foreign markets, I can guarantee they aren't counting on those sales to pay the bills. Those who are fortunate enough to sell really well in foreign markets will likely have no problem at all meeting that threshold.
  
  Furthermore, if an author chooses to use Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT), then there is no threshold, regardless of where the sales occur. That reason alone is why the vast majority of authors use EFT. If there are any authors who ARE losing "hundreds of dollars", then they can easily resolve this by doing the same.
  
  
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