Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By John Stewart PayPal Holdings Inc. and eBay Inc. went their separate ways just 45 days ago, but already the fallout from that split is beginning to make itself felt. EBay is telling sellers on its main online marketplaces that starting Sept. 27 it will stop supporting three electronic payment …
Read More »PayPal To Eliminate Tiered Pricing for Its Smallest U.S. Merchants
PayPal Holdings Inc. will eliminate volume-based price tiers and charge all of its small U.S. merchants 2.9% of the sale plus 30 cents per domestic transaction come Oct. 1, according to a notice the leading online-payments firm began sending to merchants Thursday. The 2.9%-plus-30-cents tier is the highest rate under …
Read More »Blackhawk Study on E-Gift Cards Shows Why Competition Is Heating up
Electronic gift cards are becoming more popular with consumers, and potentially creating more sales at retailers, finds a new survey from Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. That will likely mean competition for consumers will heat up as merchants and processors look to cash in. Mercator Advisory Group, which follows the gift …
Read More »Eye on Wall Street: First Data Names IPO Underwriters; Worldpay in Play?
Payment processor First Data Corp. on Tuesday named a big cast of underwriters for its planned initial public offering of stock. Meanwhile, a German processor reportedly is joining private-equity firms in making a play for United Kingdom-based Worldpay Ltd., which is one of the world’s largest merchant acquirers and has …
Read More »How Buy Buttons And Single-Click Tech Are Driving Commerce on Smart Phones
By John Stewart Larger screens, buy buttons, and streamlined checkouts are expected to combine to raise the profile of smart phones in e-commerce. And now there are numbers to show just how much retail sales volume the devices will generate. Smart phones will account for $27.7 billion in retail mobile …
Read More »Global Payments Will Use Apriva’s EMV mPOS Apps for Android and iOS Devices
Atlanta-based merchant processor Global Payments Inc. will use mobile point-of-sale apps from Apriva Inc. to service its merchants wanting EMV-capable mPOS, Apriva announced Tuesday. The deal sees the AprivaPay Plus app, available for iOS and Android devices, branded with the Global Payments name. Such branded, or white-labeled, agreements enable companies …
Read More »Payments Companies Gashed in Bloody Wall Street Rout
Publicly traded payments companies fared slightly worse than the major market indexes Monday in a continuation of a Wall Street selloff triggered by investor worries about China’s economic situation, overvaluation of securities, and the future of U.S. interest rates. Fifty companies tracked by Digital Transactions News fell 4.03% from Friday’s …
Read More »In This High-Stakes Poker Game, Verizon Holds More Cards Than Samsung
By John Stewart Why won’t Verizon Wireless make nice with Samsung Pay? With the U.S. debut of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s mobile-payments service just a few days away—and a national launch of Samsung Pay due Sept. 28—all the major mobile network operators have signed on to support the service with …
Read More »AmEx Adds Rewards to Its Serve Prepaid Card, But Will Users Find It Worth the Price?
American Express Co. is offering new rewards and benefits for using one of its prepaid cards, but at a cost. The card brand and acquirer on Wednesday added a rewards program to its Serve card under the “Serve Cash Back” moniker. Serve Cash Back users, who pay $5.95 per month …
Read More »Samsung Pay’s Mag-Stripe Emulation Advantage Might Be Short-Lived
The debut of Samsung Pay in the United States is just a month away, but the ongoing migration of U.S. credit and debit cards to the EMV chip standard may already be eroding the nascent mobile-payment service’s unique advantage. Samsung Pay uses near-field communication (NFC) and, uniquely, a radio-frequency version …
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