Pricing

Bank card acquirers are increasingly tacking on fees to handle American Express Co. transactions at terminals they deploy for merchants, a tactic that may work in their favor as AmEx signs on more banks as issuers of the T&E company's products. That's among the major findings of the most recent …

While various startups attack the problem of enabling payments for small-value games, songs, and other content on the Web, a working model may already have established itself in the world of mobile commerce. Seattle-based Qpass Inc., a 7-year-old company that makes software that connects content sellers to mobile operators' billing …

Visa USA has announced a sweepstakes promotion for this summer aimed at increasing transactions on its signature-based debit card. The Visa check card, on which Visa introduced permanently lower interchange rates effective Jan. 31, offers Visa debit card issuers less revenue than was the case before last year's settlement of …

With banks and other players in the electronic transactions arena scrambling to get ready for the implementation in October of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, some 16 financial-services companies and associations have published a guide to the law. They hope the new 20-page document will be used …

TransFirst, a Dallas-based merchant processor, expects its acquisition of the third-party processing business of Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions to drive down its transaction costs and give it a sharper edge when it comes to pricing. The deal, announced yesterday and expected to close April 1, will add 90 million …

Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co., a Charleston, S.C.-based chain of supermarkets with stores in South Carolina and Georgia, has adopted a payment system secured by biometrics primarily to increase its share of technologically savvy, white-collar customers. “It sends a message that we're trying to be cutting edge,” says David Schools, senior …

MasterCard International took a $763.5 million charge against earnings in 2003 to account for its share of the settlement of the massive Wal-Mart class-action suit, documents filed yesterday reveal. As a result of the charge, the bank card association sustained a $385.8 million loss last year, compared to net income …

Two weeks after its launch, a Web site created by BitPass Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based micropayments startup, has attracted nearly 100 bands and other musicians selling single songs and tracks at prices ranging from a quarter to $1.50. Designed for so-called independent musicians seeking an outlet for their music …

With chargeback rates running well in excess of 1% on Internet transactions, Visa International and MasterCard International have for some time been pushing a form of online cardholder authentication, called 3D Secure, that is intended to make cardholders, issuers, acquirers, and merchants feel confident that Web payments are legitimate. But …

Visa USA's increase in credit card interchange rates, announced today, are intended to help the giant bank card network keep its members' business in the face of recent efforts by American Express Co. to court banks as issuers of its cards, Visa says. As expected by many observers, Visa today …