Friday , March 29, 2024

Pricing

COMMENTARY: The Great Hope Rising From the Quiet Revolution Against Card Payments

In the heart of America’s bustling commerce, a subtle yet powerful revolution is unfolding, driven by small merchants. The strategies of offering discounts for cash payments and imposing surcharges for card transactions are at the forefront of this change. These practices, rapidly gaining traction across communities, directly challenge the entrenched …

Read More »

Buying Groups Might—or Might Not—Give Merchants More Negotiating Power with the Card Networks

Card-acceptance costs and network rules weren’t the only subjects covered by the sweeping settlement revealed Tuesday involving Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and lawyers for the merchants that sued them. The pending agreement, which needs approval from a federal judge, allows for the creation of so-called merchant buying groups that would …

Read More »

Visa And Mastercard Agree to Merchant Rate Cuts and Acceptance Changes in a Major Settlement

Merchant lawsuits challenging credit card interchange and payment card network rules that began nearly two decades ago may finally be heading for resolution under a landmark settlement announced Tuesday by Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., and lawyers for the merchants. Merchant lawyers in the massive case estimate the settlement could save …

Read More »

COMMENTARY: Cap One’s Bid for Discover Will Lift Many Boats

Capital One’s proposed $35.3-billion acquisition of Discover will be a thunderclap for the debit-card, retail-banking, and payment-network markets. The Discover network has long been the number-five U.S. retail-payment network, after Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and PayPal. Since its acquisition of Diners Club from Citi in 2008, Discover has struggled as …

Read More »

CFPB’s New Card Late Fees Cap and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/5/24

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule that caps late fees on credit card payments to $8, down from a typical $32. The rule goes into effect 60 days following its publication in the Federal Register. Other provisions include ending automatic annual inflation adjustment on the fee and requiring larger card …

Read More »

Will Cap One’s Deal for Discover Create ‘True’ Network Competition? Depends on Whom You Ask

Capital One Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Discover Financial Services may give Cap One an alternative network over which to route credit card transactions, but the deal will not create the “badly needed” network competition that passage of the Credit Card Competition Act would, the Merchants Payments Coalition argues. Without passage …

Read More »

Radial Adds Link Money’s Pay by Bank for Account-to-Account Payments

E-commerce platform Radial Inc. is giving its merchants a new payment option that bypasses traditional credit and debit card payments and instead relies on account-to-account transfers. Dubbed Pay by Bank, the service was developed by Link Financial Technologies Inc., which does business as Link Money, an open-banking platform. King of …

Read More »

More Salvos Emerge in the Battle Over a Credit Card Networking Bill

Proponents and opponents of the Credit Card Competition Act continue to press their respective cases for passage and rejection of the CCCA by Congress. Late Monday, the Merchants Payments Coalition fired the latest salvo in its campaign to pass the CCCA, a television commercial that literally shows a consumer getting …

Read More »

High Costs And Fraud Risk Drive Sellers’ Dissatisfaction With Card Processing, J.D. Power Finds

Small businesses tend to be less satisfied with their credit and debit card processing than they are with processing for alternative payments, according to a study by J.D. Power. Based on a 1,000-point scale, with 1,000 being the highest score, merchant-satisfaction scores for credit card processing averaged 692, while scores …

Read More »

Eye on BNPL: Klarna Debuts a Subscription Service; PublicSquare Enlists Credova

Klarna AB, a buy now, pay later provider, is entering the subscription arena with the U.S. launch of Klarna Plus. For $7.99 a month, Klarna Plus enables eligible consumers to earn double rewards points on their purchases, pay no service fee when using Klarna at merchants outside of the Klarna …

Read More »
Digital Transactions