Pricing

They’ve been the subject of intense debate for several years now, but evidence from the Southeast Acquirers Association annual conference Tuesday shows interest among independent sales organizations in discounts for cash and credit card surcharges is as high as ever. About 800 people attended the Atlanta confab that concluded Wednesday, …

Merchants will be able to choose merchant services from T-Mobile US Inc. now that the wireless carrier has launched GoPoint, a new product that includes one-price processing and mobile card readers. With processing provided by Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), GoPoint is aimed at small and medium-size businesses. The service …

Thirty-five merchants in the Silicon Valley area are accepting the new Yosemite Card, which caps acceptance fees at 0.3%. The private credit card can do that because it uses blockchain technology to manage transactions. Typical discount rates for network-branded credit cards range from 2% to 3% or more. Palo Alto, …

Debit card issuers subject to the Durbin Amendment’s interchange price controls saw their average authorization, clearing, and settlement expense, excluding fraud, fall to 3.6 cents per transaction in 2017, down 54% since 2009, the Fed reported Thursday. The Durbin Amendment to 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act requires the Fed to issue a …

Avnet Inc., a technology supplier for industries as diverse as automotive, communications, energy, and wearables, quickly has found that accepting Bitcoin via BitPay Inc. is a hit, especially with the Bitcoin mining industry. Atlanta-based BitPay announced this week that Phoenix-based Avnet uses it for Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash transactions. With …

The decision by Cboe Global Markets Inc. to shut down its Bitcoin futures market, news of which emerged late last week, may have been seen as yet another blow to the digital currency’s bid for mainstream respectability. But in some respects Bitcoin may not be any worse off for the …

As money movement gets faster, consumer expectations are increasingly pushing payments providers to make funds available sooner. PayPal Holdings Inc. on Tuesday bowed to that reality with the latest in a series of faster-payment services. The new service, called Instant Transfer to bank, relies on connections to real-time payments pioneer …

With $2.28 billion in losses over the past three years, ride-share provider Lyft Inc. is looking to cut costs—and payment-card acceptance expenses won’t be spared. San Francisco-based Lyft outlined several initiatives it already has started or is planning in a filing earlier this month with the Securities and Exchange Commission …

Could the price of Bitcoin be headed back up into the stratosphere? One noted analyst is saying it’s a distinct possibility. Based on what he sees as recurring patterns in the cryptocurrency’s pricing history, Michael Graham says Bitcoin could be starting its upward climb now toward the neighborhood of $20,000, …

The Kroger Co. on Friday opened a new front in its battle with Visa Inc. over acceptance costs with an announcement that it will stop accepting Visa credit cards at its Smith’s Food & Drug Stores chain, which operates 134 stores in seven Western states. The ban is set to …