Credit Cards

The weakening U.S. economy that's provoking angst in Washington and on Wall Street has yet to crimp No. 2 payment card network MasterCard Inc., which on Thursday reported strong fourth-quarter financials and transaction growth. MasterCard, however, is seeing a shift away from discretionary spending and toward so-called “everyday” purchases such …

Much ado is made about stopping phishing scams, database breaches, and related payment card fraud before it actually happens. But what about legitimate transactions that subsequently generate questionable or outright fraudulent chargebacks, leaving the merchant without revenue after having shipped the goods? A New York payments company called Chargeback File …

While processors continue to struggle with the economics of micropayments, Javien Digital Payment Solutions Inc. may have found a way to make the tricky payments work. The McLean, Va.-based processor, which this week introduced a payments gateway to go along with a payment-processing platform it offers primarily to sellers of …

The already-delayed $7.8 billion buyout of Alliance Data Systems Corp. by private-equity firm The Blackstone Group may not be consummated, the Dallas-based payment processor disclosed on Monday. The news sent Alliance Data's shares down 34% and fueled speculation that the deal announced last May 17 would become the latest victim …

With its latest pilot for near-field communication (NFC) technology, which was announced on Monday and got under way last Thursday with select U.S. Bancorp credit card holders in Spokane, Wash., MasterCard Worldwide is testing a streamlined version of handset personalization it hopes will make it easier for consumers to adopt …

Merchants accounting for two-thirds of Visa Inc.'s U.S. transaction volume have validated compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI, Visa reported on Tuesday. This latest report from Visa comes in the wake of a Dec. 31 deadline for so-called Level 2 merchants?mid-sized merchants that submit 1 million …

Having introduced a new processing platform to ease integration with payment software and hardware products, Global Payments Inc. on Wednesday announced it will work with NitroSell, a supplier of shopping-cart software, to allow NitroSell's merchants to process e-commerce transactions on the new system. Atlanta-based Global Payments last week announced it …

Kiosk-based electronic bill payments got another boost this week when processor Fiserv Inc.'s CheckFreePay walk-in bill-pay unit announced a deal with Ready Credit Corp. that will make bill-pay services available to consumers using cash at Ready Credit's 55 ReadyStation self-service kiosks by early spring. The kiosks, which already allow consumers …

USA Technologies Inc.'s new Quick Start program, which lets bottlers and other vending-machine owners rent rather than buy its e-Port G6 readers that process magnetic-stripe and contactless card transactions, apparently is delivering the desired lift to e-Port shipments. Malvern, Pa.-USA Technologies today reported that it shipped 7,123 e-Port devices in …

A European Commission ruling that MasterCard Worldwide's interchange-fee structure is illegal in that region will affect relatively few transactions in Europe but could encourage regulators?including those in the U.S.?to act on interchange, among other bleak implications for bank and network executives. “On balance, the EC decision is negative,” says Eric …