Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
While MyGallons LLC struggles with issues surrounding the launch last week of its prepaid card that lets consumers hedge the price of gas (Digital Transactions News, July 7), another startup is emerging with a similar business model. Boynton Beach, Fla.-based GasBankUSA LLC plans to start issuing debit cards later this …
Read More »Visa Rule Change Means Little Change for Web-Based PINless Debit
Visa Inc.'s rule change regarding PIN-based debit card transactions, which antitrust authorities disclosed last week, raised hopes that PINless debit would soon be making headway in Internet payments, but on second glance that's not likely to be the case, analysts say. That's because the electronic funds transfer networks, not Visa, …
Read More »Obopay Maps a Strategy for Mobile Payments in ‘Niche’ Markets
Mobile-payments processor Obopay Inc.'s recent agreement to provide services for a handset-based remittance product from MasterCard Worldwide (Digital Transactions News, June 19) is part of a wider strategy at Obopay to develop services in a variety of payment markets, including prepaid top-up, payroll, and benefits payments as well as remittances, …
Read More »Electronic Bill Pay Gains At Paper’s Expense, But Growth Is Slowing
The share of bills consumers pay the old-fashioned way via the regular mail continues to decline, according to the U.S. Postal Service's most recent annual study about what goes through the mails. But despite the gains of electronic bill payments, the availability of free bill-pay service at most banks may …
Read More »A Prepaid Card That Lets Consumers Lock in Gas Prices Seeks a Network
A Miami-based startup says it signed up more than 5,000 cardholders in the first two days its service was commercially available last week in a program that allows consumers to lock in the current price of gasoline by prepaying for fuel. MyGallons LLC, which began its service last Monday after …
Read More »Raw Data-Breach Numbers Rise, But the Real Picture Is Fuzzy
Data breaches are running at record levels, according to the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center, a non-profit that tracks cybercrime. ITRC says it recorded 342 data breaches from Jan. 1 through June 24, up 69% from the same period in 2007. But, like the origins and perpetrators of so …
Read More »An Extension of Security Rules to Unattended Terminals Could Be Costly
The PCI Security Standards Council this week said it would extend the reach of its rules for PIN-entry devices (PEDs) to cover unattended payment terminals such as pay-at-the-pump gasoline dispensers, kiosks, and vending machines. The extension also affects devices called hardware or host security modules (HSMs), which are secure cryptographic …
Read More »Viewpointe Adds to Momentum Behind Web Links for Image Exchange
Seeking to solve what the electronic-payments business calls the “last-mile” problem in image exchange, Viewpointe Archive Services LLC on Tuesday launched technology that allows small banks to link via the Internet to its Pointe2Pointe image-exchange network. In this way, banks can rely on existing Internet connections to use the network, …
Read More »Gasoline Marketers Underwhelmed by New Visa Interchange Rates
With complaints from fuel marketers reaching a crescendo, Visa Inc. introduced on Thursday a sweeping new credit and debit card interchange rate structure for gasoline that leaves sellers better off for many consumer credit card transactions over $30. In conjunction with the new rates, the card network also announced it …
Read More »A Visa Rule Change Prompted by DoJ Could Foster PINless Debit
Pressed by the U.S. Department of Justice, Visa Inc. has changed its operating rules to allow PINless debit card transactions for small-ticket purchases, just as it waives the signature requirement for low-value purchases on its signature-based Visa check card. Tuesday's announcement by the DoJ revealed a debit card investigation that …
Read More »