Implementing EMV chip card payments can be anything but a cheap and easy plug-and-play for small businesses, according to testimony several merchants gave before a U.S. House of Representatives committee Wednesday. Art Potash, chief executive of Potash Markets, a 65-year-old family-run Chicago grocery operation with three stores, told the House …

By Kevin Woodward None can escape the notoriety of mobile payments, but most consumers apparently are able to ignore the allure of using the smart phone-based technology. Only 18% of consumers use their mobile phones to make at least one payment a week, finds the 2015 North America Consumer Digital …

UniRush LLC’s RushCard declared a four-month fee holiday over the weekend after a glitch during the prepaid card’s switch to a new processor that began Oct. 11 limited access to an undisclosed but apparently large number of customers’ accounts. Cincinnati-based UniRush did not identify the processor. The glitch apparently started …

By John Stewart Top executives in the acquiring business are accustomed to looking far into the future, but one near-term concern popped up repeatedly at this week’s Strategic Leadership conference in Scottsdale, Ariz.: How will merchants react when they get their first statements showing chargebacks for counterfeit card fraud? As …

When Nikki Baird and Steve Rowen evaluated retailers’ digital gift cards this year, the thing that surprised them the most was how disjointed the shopper experience is. Card sales that worked just fine at a merchant’s desktop site just didn’t translate well to a mobile device, for example. That could …

The EMV era in the U.S. officially started Oct. 1, and for the most part this is shaping up to be an underwhelming launch for chip cards. It’s morning in America for payment cards, the accession of the EMV chip card as the successor to the half-century-old magnetic-stripe card. The …

By John Stewart Mobile payments have invaded many areas of consumer commerce, and now they’re about to show up in sit-down restaurants. Dallas-based Ziosk LLC said late last week it will add capability for Apple Pay and Android Pay acceptance to its custom-built Ziosk tabletop tablet starting early next year. …

Expectations of easily getting merchants ready to accept EMV credit and debit cards appear to be misaligned with the reality of the terminalization program. That’s one finding from a survey released Thursday by The Strawhecker Group, an Omaha, Neb.-based payments consultancy. To accept EMV chip cards, merchants must have compatible …

By John Stewart When Nikki Baird and Steve Rowen evaluated retailers’ digital gift cards this year, the thing that surprised them the most was how disjointed the shopper experience is. Card sales that worked just fine at a merchant’s desktop site just didn’t translate well to a mobile device, for …

With the business of selling merchant accounts growing more technology-based every day, how are processors going to recruit new independent sales organizations that have the necessary expertise? For at least some processors, the answer lies in inducing independent software vendors, known as ISVs, to become ISOs as well. “Two very …