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In one of the stranger twists arising from the controversial settlement to credit card interchange litigation, the federal judge overseeing the massive case on Thursday gave lawyers for two feuding merchant groups a week to propose changes to a Web site that urges merchants to opt out of the …
Read More »Credit Cards, Prepaid Cards and Smart Phones Emerge as the Stars of POS Payments Growth
Aided by an improving economy, credit cards staged a comeback in 2012, edging out debit cards as the key payment option at the retail point of sale, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. While debit cards held the greatest share of total dollar volume at …
Read More »New Data Show Consumers Once Again Are Willing To Pull Out Their Credit Cards
Credit cards began staging a somewhat wobbly post-recession recovery in 2010 and 2011. But new figures from First Data Corp. and Visa Inc. indicate credit card charge volume is back to just about full health. In a mid-March investor presentation, Visa reported that U.S. credit card payment volume increased 11% …
Read More »With the Garden State’s Greenlight, Online Gambling’s Odds Look Better for Acquirers
Now that New Jersey has become the third state to legalize online gambling, the market for the first time in years has begun to offer possibilities to acquirers as a promising new source of transaction volume. But questions remain about how and how soon the new state laws will be …
Read More »VeriFone’s Stock Plummets After the Company Cuts Its Financial Outlook
The funk at VeriFone Systems Inc. continued late Wednesday when the leading point-of-sale terminal maker said revenues and profits for its first quarter of fiscal 2013 ended Jan. 31 would come in far short of earlier predictions. The downward forecast triggered a selloff in VeriFone’s shares, whose price was …
Read More »Identity Fraud Rises for the Second Year in a Row, New Study Finds
While still down from high levels in 2009, identity fraud rose for the second straight year in 2012, according to the latest annual ID-fraud study from Javelin Strategy & Research. Javelin estimates that 5.26% of U.S. consumers were ID-fraud victims last year, up from 4.90% in 2011 and the recent …
Read More »Forecasters Predict Credit Card Surcharges Will Find Few Takers Come Jan. 27
The surcharging provisions of the credit card interchange settlement announced last July will take effect on Sunday, but observers expect few merchants will take advantage of their new-found freedom to add a surcharge to Visa and MasterCard credit card sales. “I know of nobody” who plans to surcharge, says Mitch …
Read More »On the Rise, Mobile Bill Pay Could Spur More E-Bill Presentment, Card Usage
U.S. consumers are rapidly turning to mobile devices to pay bills, and that trend in turn is likely to encourage more card usage for bill payment and more electronic bill presentment, according to a study released this week. Some 8% of households with an Internet connection paid at least one …
Read More »Eye on Volumes: American Express, Chase Paymentech, Bank of America, U.S. Bank
Some of the biggest payments companies and debit card issuers this week reported their latest volumes and related data along with their fourth-quarter financials. • American Express Co. late Thursday reported that U.S. card-billed business grew 7% to $155.5 billion from $145.5 billion in 2011’s last quarter. International volume increased …
Read More »U.S. Bank Pairs a Rewards Card With iPhone-Based NFC Payments in Two Test Cities
U.S. Bancorp is joining the ranks of banks and tech companies testing near-field communication (NFC) technology by pairing a rewards credit card account with Apple Inc.’s iPhone in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Portland, Ore. The Minneapolis-based banking company is offering new holders of its FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa …
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