Credit Cards

The number of card-accepting merchant locations around the world reached a record high of 88 million in 2021, up 2% over 2020 as measures to fight the pandemic helped stoke consumer usage of payment cards rather than alternatives like cash, according to research released Monday by London-based research firm RBR. …

As the holiday season continues and the cost-of-living rises, shoppers are searching for meaningful yet budget-friendly gifts for loved ones. Consumers need financial flexibility to make large purchases without using their entire paycheck to do so. Buy now, pay later solutions continue to rise in popularity as consumers search for …

Prepaid card platform Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. launched its One4All gift card, a single gift card accepted at more than 100 merchants and restaurants. The card is issued by Pathward N.A., a unit of Pathward Financial. Matera, a Brazil-based instant payments and QR code payments company, opened an office in San Francisco …

Not all countries, companies, and persons will suffer equally from inflation in 2023, as Europe will see a decline in economic activity while the U.S. market will experience limited economic growth, forecasts the Mastercard Economics Institute. Food-service provider Sodexo North America’s InReach unit has contracted with payments provider Cantaloupe to upgrade 18,800 vending machiens and …

A new report from J.D. Power finds that small-business owners, struggling to offset inflation’s impact and supply-chain issues, continue to rely on their credit cards. American Express Co. cards for small businesses scored highest in the 2022 U.S. Small Business Credit Card Satisfaction Study from J.D. Power. This is the …

The messaging app Clickatell added updates to its Chat Commerce Platform, including a new integration of Chat 2 Pay, which allows travel brands to accept payments as part of business messages. The card-issuing platform Marqeta Inc. announced it has integrated Mastercard Track Instant Pay, which enables immediate payment of supplier invoices. The virtual-card platform Extend announced …

Curve OS Ltd. said it secured a deal with Credit Suisse to fund its first $1 billion in installment loans, via its Curve Flex product, in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. London-based Curve announced Curve Flex in 2021. A survey from Bango PLC of 2,500 U.S. subscription users found that 65% said …

To counter the rising tide of first-party misuse chargebacks, also known as “friendly fraud,” Chargeback Gurus has introduced ARI, a predictive-analytics engine the company says can identify transactions likely to be disputed by the cardholder, even though the transaction is legitimate. ARI uses artificial intelligence to analyze data gathered from …

Buy now, pay later provider Splitit Inc. said data from the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events found that the top spending categories on its platform were electronics, fine jewelry, fitness and outdoors, home furnishings, and health and beauty, based on merchant sales volume. Consumers have hidden bill pay costs of …

Thales, a French company known in the payments industry for its digital-identity technology, on Thursday introduced a product that it says will allow visually impaired shoppers to verify the details of a card transaction while standing at the point of sale. The Voice Payment Card, which Thales announced has been …