Prepaid Cards

Fraudulent online sales of cars, recreational vehicles, boats, and outdoor equipment are soaring, with the scams typically funded through the victims’ gift cards, according to recent FBI data. A public-service announcement the FBI posted last week on its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Web site says the site received 26,967 complaints …

Gift and prepaid card services provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. reported Tuesday that it has a deal with two financial firms to be taken private for $3.5 billion. Private-equity firm Silver Lake Management L.L.C. and hedge fund P2 Capital Partners are offering $45.25 per share in cash. The offer represents …

The Chicago Transit Authority, an early proponent of open-loop fare payments, announced Monday that the general-purpose payment feature in some of its fare cards will expire Dec. 31. The operator of the nation’s second-largest transit system says riders did not embrace the idea of a CTA-provided general-purpose prepaid account coupled …

Discover Financial Services could find itself in the catbird’s seat if Apple Inc.’s new Apple Pay Cash person-to-person payment service gains popularity as a way to pay merchants. In addition to its main P2P function, Apple Pay Cash is accepted at any merchant location that accepts Apple’s 3-year-old Apple Pay …

Apple Inc. on Monday officially entered an increasingly crowded arena of players looking to carve out a share of the market for person-to-person payments. Apple Pay Cash, which the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant first announced six months ago, went live following the release of iOS 11.2, Apple’s latest operating-system update …

It’s the time of year when the mind turns to gift-giving, and now there’s an alternative to the mundane gift card. Amazon.com Inc. last week received a patent for a new type of digital card that allows the recipient to buy anything that falls within so-called gift rules set by …

The average holiday shopper will purchase four gift cards this year, and spending volume on them will rise slightly over last year, according to results of a new survey conducted for the National Retail Federation. Based on reports from 7,439 consumers about their holiday shopping plans, the Washington, D.C.-based NRF …

Richard Cordray, the only person so far to serve as director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, announced Wednesday that he will resign by month’s end. The widely anticipated move casts uncertainty over the CFPB’s future, including its policies on electronic payments. “For President Trump, it will be yet …

Online marketplace eBay Inc. will add business-to-business gift cards from Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. to its roster of products, Blackhawk announced Wednesday. The expansion—Blackhawk already provides other gift card services to eBay—will help the marketplace with its B2B sales, Blackhawk says. Now, businesses can order eBay gift cards to reward …

Gift card recipients spend on average $38 more than the value of their gift cards, a $10 increase from 2016, says First Data Corp. in its “2017 Prepaid Consumer Insights Study” released Wednesday by the giant processor. Based on the responses of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers, the report found …