Credit Cards

Before being upended by the Covid-19 pandemic, the payment choices U.S. consumers made were fairly stable. The biggest changes from 2018 to 2019 were an upswing in online bill payments and continued slippage in cash usage, according to new findings from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Based on a …

A group of 16 European banks said they plan to launch a “truly European” unified payments system by 2022 that would be an alternative to Visa and Mastercard, Reuters reported.The slowdown in in-store shopping due to the Covid-19 pandemic has caused some stores to run out of coins; most recently big-box grocery chain …

Evidence continues to accumulate that the Covid-19 pandemic is not only boosting contactless and online payments, but doing so in historically short order. Some 48% of small and medium-size merchants reported in mid-June that they had observed an increase in the number of consumers either using contactless payments or asking …

A new European Commission report shows how interchange regulation has lowered merchants’ payment card acceptance costs and taken more than $3 billion a year from card issuers’ top lines. The EC, the executive arm of the Brussels-based European Union, implemented its so-called Interchange Fee Regulation in 2015 and 2016. The …

While e-commerce sales overall have ballooned for many merchants since the March 11 declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic, health-and-beauty and business supplies generally did not. Until last week. Online business supplies sales were up 21% and health-and-beauty sales were up 20% for the week of June 16-22, reports the Signifyd …

ATM network operator Cardtronics plc said customers of Social Finance Inc. (SoFi) will get access to the 55,000 ATMs in the Cardtronics-owned Allpoint surcharge-free network, including several at the new SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, under a new agreement between the companies.Payment technology provider Galileo announced the full launch of Galileo Instant, a service …

All card schemes are now on board with the new deadline for the U.S. EMV liability shift in April 2021. So, the time to upgrade—if you haven’t—is now.  Adding EMV chip readers both inside a store and at automated fuel dispensers (AFDs) isn’t intended to be a hardship for gas …

German payments provider Wirecard, which entered the U.S. market in 2016, filed for insolvency, it announced Thursday, following the disclosure last week of more than $2 billion in disputed cash. It is evaluating whether insolvency will be filed for its subsidiaries.In an update, Mastercard Inc. reported its switched transaction volume recorded a 1% increase in the …

7-Eleven Inc. is testing a fuel loyalty program that also provides a contactless payment option with Siri functionality for iPhone users. The convenience-store chain also is expanding its mobile checkout capability through its app to Utah locations. Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven is testing the fuel loyalty service in Orlando, Fla., northern …

Amadis, a payment software provider, announced an EMV migration product for petroleum and convenience stores. In conjunction with Advanced Mobile Payment Inc. and Texas Engineering Consulting Systems and Services, Amadis developed a proprietary Android-based contactless pay-at-the-pump product that decouples the fuel pump dispenser from the point-of-sale system, enabling payment authorization to take …