Mega-retailer Target Corp. says consumers can now use buy now, pay later options from Sezzle Inc. and Affirm Inc. Though Target doesn’t say why it is offering two BNPL options, it distinguishes Affirm, which offers a point-of-sale loan that charges interest, as best for purchases of more than $100. Sezzle, …
Read More »More Than One-Quarter of Surveyed BNPL Users Have Missed at Least One Payment
As the popularity of buy now, pay later services accelerates, potential problems do, too. Evidence of that has emerged in new research that finds 14% of BNPL users missed a payment once, and 12% missed a payment more than once, according to a new report from Piplsay, a consumer-research firm. …
Read More »Discover’s Meal Plan Strategy and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/29/21
Discover Network said it will work with Phood Solutions Inc., a food-payment and delivery platform for college students, to provide a mobile app that allows students to load a meal plan along with plan dollars for use with DoorDash and other services. Payments will be backed by a Discover prepaid card …
Read More »Online Powerhouse GoDaddy Takes the Next Step with Card-Present Transactions
GoDaddy Inc., which launched GoDaddy Payments in June to unify its transaction services following its December deal to buy point-of-sale terminal maker Poynt Inc., released a countertop payment terminal and mobile card reader with lower fees than most competitors. Merchants will pay 2.3% per card-present transaction and 2.3% plus 10 …
Read More »More Retailers Offer Apple Pay Than Offer Rivals, Report Finds
A new report based on the practices of 100 retailers finds that Apple Pay is available at more of them—97%—than its chief competitors Google Pay and Samsung Pay. That’s according to the 2021 Omnichannel Retail Index, released Monday by FitForCommerce, a retail consultancy, in conjunction with the National Retail Federation. …
Read More »BNPL Consumers Are Not Shy About Using Credit Products, a TransUnion Report Finds
New research suggests buy now, pay later users may not be shunning traditional retail credit products in favor of the installment-payment option. That’s one finding from TransUnion LLC’s “Understanding the Evolving Point-of-Sale” report released Thursday. The data show that 76% of the point-of-sale financing applicants had a retail card in …
Read More »Eye on BNPL: Affirm Combines Repayment Options And SeaWorld Offers Uplift Installments
As the buy now, pay later payment option continues to permeate commerce, Affirm Inc. fine tunes its repayment options and Uplift hooks SeaWorld as a client. San Francisco-based Affirm says its new Adaptive Checkout gives consumers the option to pay in biweekly or monthly installments. The service will dynamically present a …
Read More »Contactless Payment Rises—And So Do Back-to-School Purchases—PSCU Report Shows
Contactless credit card transactions caught up to their debit counterparts as a percent of volume in August, with 17% of total card-present volume, as tracked in the monthly PSCU Payments Index, attributed to the payment form. That matches the share for contactless debit transactions. PSCU, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based credit …
Read More »Numbers From Mastercard And Visa Indicate Growing Momentum for Consumer Spending
It’s more than 100 days until Christmas, but forecasts for the 2021 holiday shopping season are already rolling in. Mastercard Inc., in its SpendingPulse report released Monday, forecasts that U.S. holiday retail spending from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 will increase 7.4% over 2020 and 11.1% over the same period …
Read More »Walgreens Moves into Banking With Its Scarlet Bank Account And Debit Card Debut
Giant pharmacy chain Walgreen Co. is getting into the banking and debit card business with the launch of Scarlet. Announced Thursday, Scarlet is a Mastercard-branded debit card issued by MetaBank. InComm Payments provides the system for the account. Scarlet works like most bank accounts and is designed to help accountholders …
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