With the Covid-19 pandemic still imposing a huge financial weight on the nation’s small businesses and families, many legislators are understandably eager to pursue policies they feel will ease that burden. But lawmakers must be careful that they are looking at policies that really will help. Unfortunately, some sectors—in this …
Read More »The Architect of Debit Price Caps Attacks Visa And Mastercard for Planned Credit Card Hikes
The U.S. Senator who gave his name nearly a decade ago to a law that caps debit card interchange made it plain Thursday he now has the rates merchants pay for credit card acceptance squarely in his sights. Commenting during a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he heads, …
Read More »BJ’s Wholesale Adds Online SNAP Payments and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/5/21
The warehouse-store chain BJ’s Wholesale Club said it has added electronic benefits transfer payment capability to its Web site for in-store or curbside pickup of SNAP-eligible items. The service applies to stores in Florida and North Carolina. The processor is FIS Inc.’s Worldpay. SNAP is the federal Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program.Independent …
Read More »Interchange Adjustments Will Add a Net $889 Million to Merchants’ Costs, an Analysis Says
With the two big payment networks set to raise by hundreds of millions of dollars the cost U.S. merchants pay for card acceptance, e-commerce merchants could see fee boosts while some segments—like travel-and-entertainment and low-ticket-value, quick-service merchants—could see some reductions. In total, rate tweaks scheduled by Visa Inc. and Mastercard …
Read More »CardX Wins Its Kansas Surcharging Suit. Surcharging Bans Remain in Only Three States
CardX LLC, a surcharging-services provider, can now add another state to the list of places where it can do business. A federal judge ruled Thursday surcharging cannot be prohibited in Kansas. The decision leaves just Colorado, Massachusetts, and Connecticut with outright no-surcharge rules on the books. Filed May 29, 2020, …
Read More »With a Federal Lawsuit, Intuit Challenges the Card Networks’ Interchange Regime
Lawsuits brought by merchants against Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. have become almost routine for the two network giants, but now they face an unusual action—a suit from Intuit Inc., which is not only a card-accepting merchant but also an independent sales organization and payment facilitator. Filed Feb. 19 in …
Read More »Sky Systemz’s New POS Terminal Takes Aim at Merchant Price Sensitivity
In a nod to merchants’ need for more favorable point-of-sale pricing as a way to counterbalance the decline in business many have incurred as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, cloud-based POS-services provider Sky Systemz has introduced the Sky Terminal. Priced at $749, Sky Systemz’s contactless point-of-sale terminal features a …
Read More »Crypto on a Credit Card? BitPay Says Its Simplex Deal Makes it Easier And Cheaper
As part of its ongoing efforts to make purchasing cryptocurrency easier and attract new users, Atlanta-based blockchain-payment processor BitPay Inc. is teaming with Simplex Payment Services, a Vilnius, Lithuania-based financial institution, to enable European consumers to purchase cryptocurrency using a credit or debit card and incur no cardholder fees for 45 …
Read More »Uplift Signs Travel BNPL Clients and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/11/21
Buy now, pay later specialist Uplift Inc. said it signed new travel brands and experienced a 72% growth in monthly transaction revenue in the 2020 fourth quarter. New clients coming online in the second quarter include Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Virgin Voyages, and Air Canada Vacations.ACI Worldwide Inc. said it and Gilbarco Veeder-Root, …
Read More »Merchant Gripes Concern Fees And Onboarding More Than Technology, J.D. Power Finds
Against the backdrop of an overall decline in small businesses’ satisfaction with payment processors, Square Inc. ranks highest with a score of 857 out of 1,000, according to the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Merchant Services Satisfaction Study. PayPal Holdings Inc. comes in second with a score of 852, with Bank of America Merchant …
Read More »