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The merger of banking powerhouses J.P Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank One Corp., announced late yesterday, would create the nation's second largest credit card issuer as measured by credit outstanding, the banks' chief executives said this morning in a meeting with analysts. The combined bank would boast 95 million …
Read More »Continental’s Kiosk Network Reaches All U.S. Airports It Serves
Continental Airlines has announced it has now installed ticketing kiosks in all domestic airports served by its planes. With a machine going online Dec. 31 at the airport in Reno, Nev., the airline's network of machines now numbers 779 across 130 U.S. airports. Continental says self-service check-in has become the …
Read More »A New Study Documents a Breakthrough Year for Debit Cards
Debit cards were hot in 2003, and research released this week shows just how hot. A study conducted by Boston-based Dove Consulting says the number of consumers using debit cards tied to personal identification numbers to make purchases in stores rose in 2003 to 57%, up from 48% in a …
Read More »Credit Card Delinquencies Didn’t Faze Holiday Shoppers
The highest delinquency rate ever seen on credit cards did little to dampen transactions on the cards during the critical holiday season. The American Bankers Association reports today that late payments on credit cards reached a record 4.09% of all accounts in the third quarter of 2003, up from 4.04% …
Read More »Record Online Spending Brings Record Strains
The record transaction volume recorded online this holiday shopping season also put record strains on Web sites' ability to handle the load. According to data from Keynote Systems Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based site-performance management company, both response time and success rate for Web transactions improved in the week ending …
Read More »iPayment Looks to Agent Banks for Growth
Nashville, Tenn.-based independent sales organization iPayment Inc. expects on Wednesday to close on its $55 million cash acquisition of an agent-bank portfolio from First Data Corp. The portfolio consists of 18,000 small merchant accounts controlled by 170 agent banks and generating about $4 billion in annual card volume. First Data …
Read More »Yahoo’s PayDirect Enters the Overseas Remittance Market
Yahoo Finance, whose PayDirect person-to-person payment service has been in operation domestically for three years, is now offering PayDirect International to allow electronic remittances from domestic users to recipients overseas. Announced this week, the new international payment service is an effort by Yahoo Finance, a unit of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo …
Read More »Airlines Use Heavy Holiday Travel To Promote Ticketing Kiosks
Airlines are taking advantage of the onset of one of the year's heaviest travel seasons to promote their electronic self-service check-in and ticketing machines. Both American Airlines and America West today released statements touting their airport kiosks and encouraging customers to use them in the coming days to avoid long …
Read More »Study Shows Consumer Preference for PIN Debit
A major study on consumer payment preferences at the point of sale released today shows not only a stronger trend toward debit cards generally but also a stronger preference for cards secured by personal identification numbers rather than by signatures. This is despite strong promotion from the major card companies …
Read More »Wendy’s Beefs Up Credit Card Acceptance
Wendy's International Inc. announced today that more than 3,000 of its U.S. stores now accept credit cards and that more locations are being added to the program each week. By year's end the fast-food chain expects to have more than 70% of its U.S. outlets accepting cards using its satellite …
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