Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Some 24.6 million U.S. consumers bought a ring tone in the second quarter of 2006, and they showed a clear preference for so-called real tones, or master tones, over polyphonic and mono ring tones, according to research released today. Ring tones for mobile phones, which are snippets of popular songs, …
Read More »AmEx Cuts Costs But Boosts Marketing with Web Efforts
American Express Co. cardholders paid their AmEx bills nearly 100 million times in 2005 using the Internet, Judson C. Linville, president of the New York City-based firm's U.S. Consumer Card Services Group, told analysts Wednesday. “The Web has fundamentally transformed our business in the last few years,” Linville said at …
Read More »POS Debit Card Usage Continues To Grow, Star Survey Says
Debit cards continue to find favor with consumers for point-of-sale purchases, results of the latest annual payments survey by First Data Corp.'s Star electronic funds transfer network shows. And recent security breaches involving PIN-based debit cards don't yet seem to have dented PIN debit's popularity. According to Star's 2005/2006 Consumer …
Read More »Discover Scores Exclusive Deal with Fast-Growing Dollar Tree Chain
In marketing coup for Discover Financial Services LLC, Dollar Tree Stores Inc. has agreed to accept cards issued on Discover's network exclusively in about 2,100 of its 3,100 stores across the country. The deal, which takes effect immediately, means the Cheseapeake, Va.-based chain, which is part of a fast-growing retail …
Read More »Google Wins Points with Retailers, But Consumer Reaction Unclear
The product has been available for only two weeks, but Google Inc.'s online payment service has already won considerable favor with at least some Internet merchants and companies that process online transactions. Meanwhile, some analysts caution that even if Google Checkout, the online search giant's name for its long-expected entry …
Read More »Wachovia Exposes Latest Card Fraud, But More Banks Likely Ensnared
Wachovia Corp., some of whose debit card holders have been victimized by a data breach that happened several months ago, began sending notices and replacement cards to those customers recently because it began to see signs of fraud after months of monitoring the accounts, the bank says. Although Wachovia's action …
Read More »With New Web Service, Xoom Targets the Giants of Money Transfer
Armed with $15 million in new venture capital, San Francisco-based Xoom Corp. is embarking on the next phase of its growth plan: selling Internet-based money-transfer services to banks, retailers and smaller money-transfer operators (MTOs) that can put their own brands on them and sell them to consumers. Founded in 2002, …
Read More »Banks Should Pick up the Phone for Bill Payments, Experts Assert
Think of electronic bill payments and, not surprisingly, the Internet usually comes to mind first. But many billers, especially banks, have yet to offer bill payments through telephone-based customer-service systems or automated interactive voice-response units, experts tell Digital Transactions magazine in an upcoming story on expedited bill payments. The Web's …
Read More »Report: M-Gaming Will Top $3 Billion in North America by 2011
Mobile gambling, which doesn't now exist as a market in North America, will grow to $3.34 billion in revenue by 2011, accounting for 14% of a $23.2 billion world market, according to research released this week. Driving this growth, says Juniper Research Ltd., which published the research, are the rapid …
Read More »Yahoo!’s New Pact with eBay Promises More Payments for PayPal
A multi-faceted marketing partnership between giant Internet portal Yahoo! Inc. and PayPal Inc., announced last week, seems likely to drive a significant flow of transaction volume to online auction provider eBay Inc.'s payment service. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo! is the No. 2 parent company in terms of visited …
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