Competitive Strategies

Restaurant chain Steak ’n Shake says it has reduced its transaction fees by nearly 50% compared to credit card acceptance costs, while at the same time increasing sales by 15%, since it began accepting bitcoin last May. Steak ‘n Shake has nearly 400 locations in the United States. Steak ‘n …

The Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) was dead in the water. Most of Congress would have preferred to leave it that way, avoiding a vote in which they would have to take sides between two powerful interests: banks and merchants. But President Trump, with a single Truth Social post on …

DriveCentric, a customer relationship management platform, said it will work with Dealer Pay, an automobile dealer-specific payments platform, to enable payment collection within DriveCentric. Landi Global introduced its P-Series point-of-sale devices. The company also marked its 20th anniversary. Chinese users of Apple Pay may now use Visa cards issued in China for overseas payments, ending …

The Calgary, Alberta-based processor Helcim Inc. has grown increasingly active in launching new services in recent years as more intense competition wears on midsize payments players. The company’s latest gambit: an extension that lets merchants access Helcim’s processing platform within the business software they already use, bypassing alternatives integrated within …

Benji Pays Solutions Inc., a payments platform for managed-service providers and small businesses, has launched Benji Payments, which it says offers payment processing directly within the company’s platform. Adyen NV’s Adyen for Platforms is serving as payment service provider. Paysafe Ltd. will become a recommended acquirer for card transactions on Pay.com’s payment-orchestration platform under a …

Payments-technology provider PayEngine will enable its softPOS tap-to-pay service with ServiceTitan Inc., a software developer for contractors in the HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other service sectors. Santa Monica-based PayEngine says this means consumers will be able to pay their contractor invoices on the ServiceTitan platform by tapping a contactless card …

Research from the processor Paysafe indicates strong interest in online betting during the 2026 World Cup, with 19% of consumers globally planning to place their first online bet during the tournament. Block Inc.’s buy now, pay later service, Afterpay, said 96% of pay-in-four users who shopped during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday …

The proposed Credit Card Competition Act staged a comeback Tuesday with a huge boost from President Trump, who endorsed the bill on the Truth Social platform the previous day. The President’s backing breathes new life into the bill, which has been bandied about Capitol Hill for years. The last major …

With more than 100 million U.S. consumers expected to choose a buy now, pay later payment option by 2027, according to eMarketer Inc., BNPL providers are preparing better underwriting and new services as the payment option is further cemented in the U.S. payments economy. Affirm Holdings Inc. says its underwriting …