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American Express Co. turned up the competitive heat in the gift card sector Wednesday by announcing the immediate elimination of monthly fees on all of its gift cards. AmEx also announced an expanded gift card program with shopping mall operator Simon Property Group Inc., the nation's largest public real-estate company …
Read More »A Special Delivery on the Hill Makes Interchange a Grassroots Issue
A delegation from 7-Eleven Inc., including the convenience-store giant's chief executive and a handful of franchisees, cast the card-interchange issue as a matter of grassroots politics on Wednesday by personally delivering to lawmakers in the nation's capital petitions with nearly 1.7 million signatures calling for interchange regulation. The petitions, which …
Read More »Report: Open-Loop Prepaid Load Volume Will Top Closed-Loop by 2012
The year 2012 could mark a milestone for the prepaid card industry. That's when load volume on so-called open-loop, or general-purpose, prepaid cards could surpass load volume on closed-loop cards, if predictions by Mercator Advisory Group Inc. prove true. Maynard, Mass.-based Mercator recently released several prepaid market reports, the latest …
Read More »Why Billing Revolution Is Betting on Credit Cards for Mobile Payments
Most payments startups focusing on mobile commerce these days are relying on either direct debit or carrier billing to handle funds transfers. But Billing Revolution, a 2-year-old Seattle-based company, is marketing a system that lets consumers buy products on their handsets with a single click, and charge their transactions to …
Read More »Tyfone Sees Its New Patent Advancing NFC on Memory Cards
In the wake of a patent award announced this week, a top Tyfone Inc. executive says the company expects to have what it calls a “scalable” platform built by the middle of next year for a contactless mobile-payments system based on Secure Digital memory cards that fit into handsets. “The …
Read More »NACHA Proposes to Use WEB for Mobile Payments, for Now
The rules-setting body of the automated clearing house plans to classify mobile ACH transactions under the existing WEB code rather than create a new code for such payments, at least for the short term. Mobile payments could get their own code some time after 2010. Those ideas are part of …
Read More »A Pitch to Newspapers Highlights Google’s Plan for Micropayments
With the popularity of digital content on the rise, processors are starting to see opportunity in a business that seemed moribund only a few years ago?handling transactions that average roughly $5 or less. The latest entrant, or, more properly, entrant-to-be, in this business is Google Inc., which is working on …
Read More »Wells Brings Remittances to the Internet for ‘Tech-Savvy’ Users
The money-transfer business just got a bit more competitive. Wells Fargo & Co. on Wednesday said it has added an online feature to its ExpressSend service, enabling customers to send money to seven countries from their computer keyboards at any time. “It's in response to our customers' wants,” Steve Clark, …
Read More »With 1.4 Million Employees, Wal-Mart Puts Payroll Cards on the Map
In yet another move that could shake up the financial world and boost electronic payroll cards, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is eliminating paper checks for employees. Under the new payroll program, employees who don't have direct deposit will be issued a MasterCard-branded payroll card through the First Data Money Network Payroll …
Read More »With Pulse Deal, Interac Expands Its Cross-Border Utility
Canada's Interac Association PIN-debit network this week announced a deal with the Houston-based Pulse network that will let holders of Pulse, Discover, and Diners Club cards withdraw cash at Canadian ATMs. More such deals with other networks are likely as Interac seeks to let foreigners use their cards while visiting …
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