Online payment processor Payza announced Monday that its customers can now use funds in their Payza accounts buy alternatives to Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency market leader. The news comes six months after Payza launched a service enabling customers to sell so-called altcoins such as Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, Monero, and Zcash. …
Read More »Amazon Opening Voice-Command Payments To Outside Developers and Merchants
Amazon.com Inc. is recruiting outside software developers and merchants to create functions that work with its Alexa voice-command system and the Amazon Pay service so that consumers can make purchases using their Amazon payment credentials at both physical and online merchants. Seattle-based Amazon made the announcement at its big Amazon …
Read More »Boston’s Transit System To Replace Its CharlieCard With Contactless Fare Payments
Less than a month after winning the contract to bring contactless fare payments to New York City’s vast subway and bus system, Cubic Transportation Systems won a $575 million contract from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to replace the CharlieCard, a fixture in Boston, with a modernized fare system centered …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Transforming Mobile Wallets from Payment Tools Into Engagement Tools
Mobile technology has enabled people to be connected virtually anywhere and use their smart phones for pretty much anything, including gaming, photography, GPS navigation, and online shopping for both big and small purchases. However, there is one element of smart-phone technology that isn’t being utilized to its fullest extent. Adoption …
Read More »The NRF Predicts Spending for Gift Cards Will Rise Slightly in 2017’s Holiday Season
The average holiday shopper will purchase four gift cards this year, and spending volume on them will rise slightly over last year, according to results of a new survey conducted for the National Retail Federation. Based on reports from 7,439 consumers about their holiday shopping plans, the Washington, D.C.-based NRF …
Read More »Digital-Coupon Redemptions Will Top $91 Billion in Five Years, Says Juniper
Chatbots, quick-response codes, and so-called invisible payments will spur digital-coupon redemption volume to $91 billion worldwide by 2022, forecasts Juniper Research Ltd. These three technologies will propel redemption as consumers increasingly become accustomed to them, says the United Kingdom-based research firm. For example, chatbots, a form of machine learning that …
Read More »More Younger Than Older Consumers Are Okay Shopping Online With Debit Cards
More younger consumers than older ones prefer using debit cards for online shopping, finds the “Holiday Shopping Consumer Survey Results” released by Vantiv Inc. In the survey of more than 1,000 consumers, 32% of Millennials and 27% of Generation X said using a debit card was their preferred online-shopping method. …
Read More »Buoyed by a Strong Quarter, Green Dot Prepares Launches of Apple Pay Cash And Intuit Programs
Prepaid program manager Green Dot Corp. logged a strong quarter and now looks forward to big results from fresh deals with Apple Inc. and Intuit Inc., chief executive Steven W. Streit told stock analysts on Tuesday. Speaking on the same day Apple released a so-called public beta version of its …
Read More »Canada’s Interac Eases P2P Payments And Teams With Samsung Pay for Mobile Debit
Interac, Canada’s debit network, has made it easier to digitally send money direct to another bank account through its e-Transfer service by eliminating the need for recipients to answer a security question each time a transfer is made. Answering a security question validates the recipient to whom the money is …
Read More »A Contactless and QR Code Ticketing Future Awaits, Says Report
Consumers’ fondness for using their mobile devices is going to affect mobile ticketing in a big way by 2020, says Juniper Research in its “Mobile & Online Ticketing: Transport, Events & NFC 2017-2020” report released this week. In it, United Kingdom-based Juniper forecasts that by 2020 the number of digital …
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