As restaurants turn to surcharging and dynamic pricing to offset rising operating costs, consumer backlash is raising concerns the practice could negatively affect customer loyalty and ultimately, restaurant profits. The backlash comes hard on the heels of the Electronic Payments Coalition’s attacks on restaurant surcharges and other price increases. The …
April, 2024
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15 April
Eye on Bitcoin: Get Set for the Latest ‘Halving;” Bitcoin Depot Welcomes Investors for its Kiosk Deployments
Bitcoin was designed to be a medium of exchange, like dollars, but it has become over time more like an investment, such as gold. Now, Bitcoin investors and consumers alike face an event that will significantly affect the value of their holdings, drive up Bitcoin’s price, and affect the digital …
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15 April
Mastercard’s Real-Time Canada Move and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/15/24
Mastercard Inc. said it is working with payments-technology platform VoPay to offer what the partners say will be near-real-time money-movement service in Canada. The service relies on Mastercard Move, a set of funds-transfer options. The Merchants Payment Coalition, which advocates for passage of the Credit Card Competition Act, cited the recent profits …
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12 April
A Card Industry Group Cites Retailers’ Price Boosts And Surcharges in Its Latest Campaign to Stop the CCCA
A trade group representing card networks and issuers is taking aim at restaurant surcharges and price increases by large grocers as part of its efforts to defeat the Credit Card Competition Act. The Electronic Payments Coalition’s first salvo in its new campaign against the CCCA was fired last week. In …
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11 April
As Dining Heats up, Toast And Qu Aim at Increasingly Larger Restaurant Operators
Restaurants are roaring again, and now the companies that enable digital payments for them are setting their sites on the biggest chains. Two major players, Toast Inc. and Qu POS Inc., separately announced early Thursday initiatives aimed at bolstering their positions with regional and national restaurateurs. The moves come as …
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11 April
Despite BNPL’s Popularity, Overspending and Missed Payments Remain Top Issues, Bankrate Finds
Consumer demand for buy now, pay later loans may be high, but consumers are still at risk of overspending when using BNPL to finance a purchase or missing a payment. A survey released Thursday by Bankrate LLC reveals that overspending and missing a payment are two of the most common …
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11 April
PAX Intros New POS Devices and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/11/24
PAX Technology Inc., a provider of point-of-sale payments technology, released its IM15 device, aimed at unattended, heavy-traffic POS environments. Separately, the company also unveiled its E700Mini SmartPOS POS device. Payments provider Trustly said it is working with games company Light & Wonder to offer RapidPlay to the casino industry. The feature enables immediate cashless …
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10 April
Consumer Fraud Recovery Costs Rocket 70% in One Year
Rising costs aren’t just happening in grocery stores. They have caught up to fraud-recovery costs when consumers work to untangle the mess caused by identity theft and scams. The average out-of-pocket expense for a consumer in that situation ballooned 70% from $119 in 2022 to $202 in 2023, according to …
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9 April
How Discover Looks to Reap Call-Center Efficiencies With Generative AI
The generative AI revolution received a significant boost from Discover Financial Services with the card network’s announcement early Tuesday it is deploying the artificial-intelligence technology within the Google Cloud platform in Discover’s call center. With the deployment, Discover’s nearly 10,000 customer-service agents will have access to intelligent document summarization through …
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9 April
Eye on Check Fraud: 61% Still Write Checks, But Face Fraud; DataVisor Picks Mitek Check Fraud Tool
Despite a severe drop-off in check use, 61% of consumers continue to write paper checks and continue to face the threat of check fraud, says Abrigo, a financial-crime prevention and risk-management services provider. Released Tuesday, Abrigo’s survey of 1,059 U.S. consumers also found that 45% of respondents reported being a …
