Two previously announced features—support for person-to-person payments and a new tab for storing mobile tickets—went live Tuesday in Google Pay, Alphabet Inc.’s online and mobile-payments app. The first is a peer-to-peer payment capability, formerly known as Google Wallet, that allows users to pay or request funds from other persons. This …
Read More »A Low-Friction Online Payment Button Debuts To Aid Nonprofits And Journalism Sites
LaterPay Inc. released its LaterPay button as a tool to decrease payment friction, especially for nonprofit organizations and journalism sites, the company announced Thursday. Munich-based LaterPay, which has a U.S. office in New York City, says the button is designed to be a low-friction way to enable consumers to make …
Read More »Eye on Crypto: Fit Pay Readies Its Flip; Expedia Cancels Bitcoin; Lightning’s Woes; Facebook’s About-Face
It has been a busy week in the cryptocurrency business. On Thursday, technology vendor Fit Pay Inc. announced it is closer to shipping a contactless coin-shaped device called Flip that allows consumers to convert their Bitcoin to U.S. dollars so they can make purchases. Earlier, news emerged that the online …
Read More »Venmo’s New Debit Card Is About More Than Cashing in on Interchange Fees
While the opportunity to earn interchange on transactions made on its new Venmo debit card seemingly answers the oft-asked question of how PayPal Holdings Inc. plans to leverage its free peer-to-peer payment service, the full answer runs much deeper. Interchange is only one piece of the puzzle. A much larger …
Read More »The Supreme Court’s Controversial Balancing Act in the AmEx Anti-Steering Case
With its Monday decision upholding American Express Co.’s anti-steering rules, the U.S. Supreme Court unleashed a tide of press speculation about just how payment card pricing, rewards, and network rules will be affected. At this point, however, only a few things are clear. The first is that AmEx chief executive …
Read More »Consumers Increasingly Pay Billers Directly Rather Than Through Bank Sites
Payment volume through biller-direct Web sites continues to grow at the expense of bank bill-pay sites, according to new findings from Boston-based Aite Group LLC. Some 73% of the online bill payments made by consumers in 2016 went through biller-direct sites, up from 62% in 2010, according to Aite. Meanwhile, …
Read More »Mobile POS Is Poised to Soar Worldwide As Rising Card Acceptance Stokes Merchant Demand
The mobile point-of-sale revolution is picking up momentum, despite having started nearly a decade ago with the first attachable card-reading devices for mobile phones. Projections from United Kingdom-based Juniper Research released this week indicate the installed base of mobile point-of-sale devices of all kinds worldwide—including integrated technology from major vendors—will …
Read More »Cardfree’s Mobile Wallet Patent and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/21/18
PayPal Holdings Inc. blocked sales of the violent video game Active Shooter, which lets players choose the role of a gunman terrorizing a school or of a SWAT team trying to stop him, the Associated Press reported; the game had been pulled from the online marketplace Steam after complaints but …
Read More »A Consumer Survey Yields More Indications That Zelle Is Catching Up to Venmo
Zelle’s gestation as a favored person-to-person payments service may be nearing fulfillment. A new survey from LendEDU finds that, nine months after its June 2017 debut, more consumers had become aware of the bank-backed service. In 2017, only 6.1% had heard of Zelle. By the time of the survey, that …
Read More »USAePay Notes Paradise POS Deal and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/19/18
Payment gateway Merchant Link said the Agilsys rGuest Pay v1.6 software for the hospitality industry is approved as a certified interface on Merchant Link’s network. Agilysis develops software for the hospitality industry. Payment gateway USAePay said the cash-discount program from Paradise POS, developer of iOS-based point-of-sale software, will be available …
Read More »