The Western Union Co. is boosting its tie-ins with Mastercard Inc. by integrating the card brand’s direct-to-card and cross-border payments products. Announced Friday, the integration sees Mastercard Send added to broaden Western Union’s payout capabilities in the United States. U.S. recipients of any Western Union transfer will be able to …
Read More »Zip Adds a WebBank-Issued Card to Its BNPL Roster
Zip Co. Ltd. launched the Zip Card, a physical card to complement its virtual card in the highly competitive buy now, pay later arena. The new card, to be issued by WebBank, a Salt Lake City-based industrial bank that works with brands like Dell Financial Services, CAN Capital, Klarna, Fingerhut, …
Read More »Eye on BNPL: Bonsai, Afterpay Ease Shopping on Publisher Sites; Opy USA’s Pay by Text Service
Shop Bonsai Inc., which provides in-app checkout technology under the Bonsai moniker, said it and buy now, pay later specialist Afterpay are making it easier for consumers to shop on an online publisher’s site without leaving the site. Announced Wednesday, the arrangement enables Bonsai shoppers to potentially reduce the checkout …
Read More »Bakkt Users Gain Access to Google Pay Crypto Purchases at Merchants Online And in Stores
Bakkt, a digital-asset marketplace, said its users can now load their Bakkt Visa debit cards into Google Pay and use the crypto-backed cards to make online and in-store payments where Google Pay is accepted. The consumer’s digital asset, such as Bitcoin, will be converted to fiat currency for these payments. …
Read More »When One Just Won’t Do: Target Adds Two BNPL Options
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 …
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