Credit Cards

Profits and overall transaction volumes are still growing for Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., but the bank card networks' latest quarterly numbers show just how severe the cutback by recession-racked credit card issuers is becoming. In fact, there are about 104 million fewer credit cards circulating in the U.S. today …

As the recession continues to batter merchants of all sizes, small and medium-size retailers are getting hit especially hard, and as a result so are the acquirers that process their card transactions. Indeed, in a development apparently never seen before, same-store sales on Visa and MasterCard for these Main Street …

MasterCard Inc.'s announcement on Monday that The Home Depot Inc. would accept the MasterCard PayPass contactless card at 1,974 U.S. locations, along with last week's news that sporting-goods chain The Sports Authority also would take PayPass, indicate that the card network is looking beyond the original base of cash-oriented merchants …

As the economy continues to sputter, U.S. card-billed business at American Express Co. fell 15% to $104.8 billion in the second quarter, from $123.5 billion a year earlier, according to results the travel-and-entertainment giant reported on Thursday. Average U.S. cardholder spending during the quarter on so-called basic card issued directly …

Buffeted by strong economic headwinds, U.S. airlines are looking at a variety of ways to slow the seemingly inexorable rise of card-acceptance costs, as borne out by two separate developments in recent days. United Air Lines Inc. said on Monday it is putting off for up to 60 days a …

Nearly a year after ordering the phase-out of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), a technology introduced in 1999 to protect data flowing over wireless networks, the PCI Security Standards Council this week released new guidelines for enhanced wireless security. The so-called Payment Card Industry data security standard wireless, written by the …

As the momentum behind mobile payments gathers strength, some technology experts are starting to consider so-called smart phones?which make mobile payments easy?to be devices in need of encryption. That's one finding in an annual study out Monday about encryption, a hot topic in the payment card industry nowadays because of …

7-Eleven Inc. has gathered between 1 million and 1.2 million signatures on in-store petitions asking Congress to regulate interchange rates, and expects to have 3 million customer signatures by the time the petition drive ends Aug. 10, according to an executive with the Dallas-based convenience-store chain. The response, says Keith …

MasterCard Inc. plans to pay off its remaining $400 million settlement obligation to retailers over debit card acceptance early for a discounted $335 million, according to a filing the card network made on Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Attorneys for the retailer plaintiffs have signed on to the …

A move by United Air Lines Inc. to shift to certain travel agents the costs and other responsibilities for ticket sales on credit cards has the industry in an uproar and has prompted a leading trade association to file a letter with the U.S. Department of Justice asking the agency …