Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The primary reason contactless payments are gaining favor with merchants has to do with speedier transactions and other point-of-sale efficiencies, while retailers installing or planning to install the technology show little concern about its security, according to a recent survey of retail companies. Some 58% of 160 respondents to the …
Read More »More Vending Machines, Plus Toll Road, Taking Contactless Payments
MasterCard Worldwide and USA Technologies Inc., which have been working together to equip vending machines to accept card payments, including contactless transactions, have announced the first deployments in a planned 5,000-machine rollout. The two companies also said they are installing gear on the Ohio Turnpike to accept contactless tokens for …
Read More »Citi’s New York NFC Pilot First Open Test in U.S. Backed by Major Issuer
The latest U.S. trial of contactless payment involving mobile phones and near-field communication technology (NFC), set to begin Jan. 10 in New York City, will combine key elements of the two other U.S. pilots mounted so far, and represents the first in which users can access credit cards issued by …
Read More »Discover Moves Closer to Contactless, But Stays Mum on Plans
Morgan Stanley's Discover Financial Services LLC payment network on Tuesday announced its certification of a contactless card reader from On Track Innovations Ltd., Discover's second such announcement in three months. But Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover still hasn't revealed its larger contactless plans. “There's nothing we can talk about right now,” a …
Read More »U.S. Bank Joins Growing List of Banks Testing Contactless Payment
U.S. Bancorp reported this week that it would start testing Visa Contactless credit cards by the end of the month in the Denver area. The test will involve an undisclosed number of cardholders who would be able to use the cards equipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips at about 600 …
Read More »Cingular-Backed M-Payments Service Could Boost Contactless Market
A mobile payments and banking service backed by Cingular Wireless and CheckFree Corp., announced this week, could pave the way to faster and more widespread adoption of contactless payments, its backers say. The service, which is being tested by an unnamed regional bank and is expected to launch in the …
Read More »MasterCard And VeriFone Put PayPass in Philadelphia Taxis
MasterCard Worldwide and point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Holdings Inc. on Wednesday announced that the 1,600 taxicabs in Philadelphia now accept or will accept MasterCard's PayPass contactless card by year's end. The cabs will use technology from VeriFone Transportation Systems, a joint venture of VeriFone and Queens, N.Y.-based taxi-equipment manufacturer TaxiTronic …
Read More »MasterCard Starts Test in Dallas of NFC Payment With OTA Downloads
MasterCard Worldwide announced on Thursday the start of a contactless-payment pilot in Dallas using mobile phones enabled by near-field communication (NFC) technology. The pilot, which is expected to involve about 500 subscribers of 7-Eleven Inc.'s Speak Out Wireless service, is the second real-world test of NFC payment in the U.S. …
Read More »Operator Deals, NFC Could Help Obopay Stand out in Crowded Field
Seeking to distinguish itself in a growing crowd of mobile-payment processors, Obopay Inc. saw its application go live this week on Amp'd Mobile Inc., a wireless network aimed at the youth market. This development follows by one week an agreement the Redwood City, Calif.-based startup struck with ViVOtech Inc. that …
Read More »No Single Strategy Will Unlock the Pint-Size Payments Market
Consumers spend up to $1.5 trillion a year using on small purchases using cash, depending on who's estimating, but converting so-called micropayments into electronics will be one of the payment card industry's tougher challenges. Experts contacted by this newsletter's sister publication Digital Transactions magazine for an upcoming story on micropayments …
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