Pricing

CyberSource Corp. says it has introduced a so-called PIN-less debit card payment option for online transactions at the urging of merchants looking for ways to cut their transaction costs. The Mountain View, Calif.-based payments gateway for e-commerce merchants claims to be the only major vendor offering the service, which would …

PayPal may be getting close to processing payments for online song downloads, but it's not likely to be moving more broadly into micropayments any time soon. The San Jose, Calif.-based payment-processing unit of online auctioneer eBay Inc. finished adding functionality to its system last month to handle song payments and …

A new national survey of debit card holders indicates a significant portion of consumers would be inclined to punish retailers and banks if they imposed fees or tried to restrict the range of accepted payment products. When asked how they would react if a merchant no longer accepted their debit …

Debitman Card Inc., a retailer-sponsored debit card network based in Chico, Calif., is moving aggressively on a new card-issuance plan that calls for increasing the base of Debitman-branded cards to just over 900,000 cards issued by 1,000 merchant outlets by the end of the year. The card base currently stands …

Peppercoin Inc., a micropayments processor in Waltham, Mass., sees a potential market for transactions of small and very small values reaching into the trillions of dollars, embracing both the online and point-of-sale markets. To tap that potential, the new company is moving toward a rollout, planned for mid-summer, of a …

Hypercom Corp., a supplier of point-of-sale transaction devices, has entered the electronic-transaction networking business with the formation of a new subsidiary, HBNet Inc. The new unit has been set up to compete with the dominant player in transaction networking, Reston, Va.-based Transaction Network Services Inc., which completed an initial public …

Frustration with electronic-transaction pricing may be reaching a boiling point in the supermarket industry, says one expert who keeps an eye on payments issues at the National Grocers Association, an Arlington, Va.-based trade group that includes independent supermarkets and wholesalers among its 12,000-plus members. Interchange and other costs for credit …

Electronic funds transfer network Star Systems Inc., which last month announced a new product that makes use of its EFT network to verify and settle checks written at the point of sale in the same way Star processes debit cards, says it expects Star Chek Direct to begin processing transactions …

Debit cards linked to personal identification numbers are slowly but surely penetrating more and more merchant locations, and as a result PIN debit transactions will begin to overtake transactions on signature-based debit cards within five years, says an analyst at Speer & Associates Inc., Atlanta, who has studied the issue. …

A transaction processor that targets high-volume online merchants is winning adherents among merchants and consumers alike for its product, which allows consumers to buy on credit without entering sensitive account data. I4Commerce Inc.'s “Bill Me Later” service, which became commercially available two years ago as an alternative to credit cards …