Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Among its many damaging effects, financial fraud threatens the growth of online payments and banking and could drive consumers away from banks and toward electronic payment systems they perceive as more secure, such as PayPal. Those are some of the conclusions in a new report from technology research and consulting …
Read More »Discover’s Prepaid Teen Card Is the Latest Entry in a So-So Market
Discover Financial Services this week unveiled a teen-oriented prepaid card called Current by Discover. Current is the latest entrant in a niche that includes the Visa Buxx and Allow MasterCard, prepaid cards that may have garnered more headlines than users. But Discover says its new card has straightforward pricing and …
Read More »Fraudsters Run One-Stop Shop Online to Sell Data-Stealing Code
Fraudsters are running an online trading post for highly sophisticated code that allows criminals to more easily steal consumers' log-on credentials, Social Security Numbers, PINs, and other confidential information, according to the latest report from RSA Security Inc.'s Anti-Fraud Command Center. The fraudster Web site, which RSA analysts call a …
Read More »An AmEx-Delta Cobrand Deal Carries Acquiring, Debit Implications
An extended cobranded credit card pact between Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Express Co., announced on Tuesday, also has merchant-acquiring and debit card implications, and it provides further evidence of how airlines in a weak economy can raise cash from their issuing and acquiring partners. AmEx, issuer of Atlanta-based …
Read More »With NFC Stalled, Mobile Payments Will Follow Other Paths, Report Says
While experts once thought contactless payments via a technology called near-field communication (NFC) would drive mobile payments, the sluggish development of NFC now means handset-based payments will grow without the technology, according to a research report released on Tuesday. Indeed, payments by text messages, through the mobile Web, and on …
Read More »Mobile Banking Moves to the Point of Sale with Consumer Incentives
As mobile banking spreads to more banks, the companies that enable the service are getting ready to bring it to the merchant point of sale, along with a bevy of incentives to induce consumers to buy. The move, say some, stems from the recognition that if banks simply enroll online-banking …
Read More »Heartland Gets Into the Loyalty Business with Its Chockstone Deal
In buying Chockstone Inc., a provider of gift card and loyalty services and technology for merchants, Heartland Payment Systems Inc. essentially is making a bet that merchants with loyal customers make more loyal clients for merchant acquirers. “That certainly is part of the thought process,” Heartland president and chief financial …
Read More »Shell Seeks to Cut Acceptance Costs, Pump Up Loyalty With ACH Card
In what it calls a first for a major oil company, the U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc in January plans to offer a PIN-based consumer debit card that uses the automated clearing house network, gives consumers a discount on gas, and costs Shell's retail outlets 40 cents per …
Read More »In the U.S., Visa Banks on Debit As Credit Growth Goes Negative
Debit cards have been growing faster than credit cards for years now in the United States, but they'll be more important than ever for Visa Inc.'s growth in the near term as wary banks rein in lending. With the weakening economy, what had been slow credit card payment growth went …
Read More »With Boston on Board, Select-A-Branch Plans Further Expansion
Select-A-Branch, the multibranded surcharge-free ATM network, reported on Tuesday that it has completed installation of 10 machines in Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway stations, but its growth train won't stop in Boston. “Look for us in some major airports,” Dan Stechow, chief operating officer of King of Prussia, Pa.-based Select-A-Branch …
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