PayNearMe Strikes Comcast Payment Deal and other Digital Transactions News briefs

• The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index found that checks, at 90%, and cash, at 72%, continue to reign as the top payment methods accepted by small businesses. A printed check from a bill-pay service was next, at 53%, followed by credit or debit card at a point-of-sale terminal, 42%, digitally via electronic funds transfer, 42%, and credit or debit card via a mobile POS terminal, 30%. Also, 51% said they are now EMV chip-enabled, compared with 48% in January, and 31% a year ago.

• Comcast Corp. customers can now pay their TV, Internet, or phone bills in cash at more than 7,700 7-Eleven Inc. convenience stores through a new service provided by PayNearMe Inc.

• EPay Advisors, a subsidiary of ePayResources, the newly formed organization resulting from the merger of regional payments associations SWACHA and EastPay, announced its inaugural board of directors.

• Vending-payments specialist PayRange announced that culinary and refreshment-service provider American Food & Vending will use the PayRange BluKey device across its 50 branches in 35 U.S. markets. BluKey is a dongle that attaches inside vending machines to enable contactless payments.

• The U.S. Payments Forum, formerly the EMV Migration Forum, released a white paper titled “EMV Chargeback Best Practices,” which offers guidelines on ensuring proper authorization of transactions and how to avoid or mitigate invalid chargebacks.

• E-commerce platform provider Shopify Inc. said gross merchandise volume more than doubled in the second quarter to $3.4 billion, and that GMV processed through Shopify Payments surpassed $1 billion.

• Government-payments specialist Grant Street Group said the state of Ohio will use its PaymentExpress service at Department of Public Safety/Bureau of Motor Vehicles locations. Grant Street Group forecasts Ohioans will make more than 2 million card payments a year using the service.

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay $446,822 to thousands of ex-prisoners and pay up to $250,000 in plaintiffs’ legal costs to settle a class-action lawsuit over fees on a Chase prepaid card given to federal prisoners upon their release, Bloomberg reported.

• Payments provider SignaPay Ltd. named Matt Nern as vice president of sales. According to a LinkedIn profile identified as his, Nern previously worked a Secure Bancard LLC, CrossCheck Inc., and US Merchant Systems.