The onset of the novel coronavirus has caused a seismic shift in the daily lives of Americans. While recent data in the fight against this pandemic are encouraging, we’re not out of the woods yet, and we will be slow to return to life as we once knew it. Social …
Read More »Google’s Financial-Services Plans May Include a Card Redux
It’s well known that Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit wants to offer consumers checking accounts, though that service has yet to launch. But the search-engine giant also reportedly is developing a debit card that would work in concert with its Google Pay mobile-payments service, according to news reports from Silicon Valley. …
Read More »FreedomPay Adds Google Pay Support and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/17/20
Payments provider FreedomPay has added support for Google Pay, enabling Google Pay users to make e-commerce payments in Android apps and in Web browsers. This can be done on a merchant’s Web site regardless of browser or operating system or within an Android app, with FreedomPay securely integrating to the Google Payments …
Read More »Some Small Businesses Are Seeing Higher Sales During Pandemic, ETA-Strawhecker Survey Finds
The screeching slowdown in consumer spending caused by efforts to stem the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has hit U.S. small businesses particularly hard, but there are some bright spots, according to the Electronic Transactions Association and merchant-acquiring research and consulting firm The Strawhecker Group. The survey of more than …
Read More »Card Networks Up Canadian Contactless Transaction Limits To Limit Physical Contact
Contactless payments already capture a big share of point-of-sale purchases in Canada, and that share is sure to grow with recent announcements by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. that they are raising their contactless transaction limits to C$250 to limit the handling of cards that could spread the coronavirus, according …
Read More »Grocer Publix Activating Contactless Payment Acceptance and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/3/20
Supermarket giant Publix said it is installing contactless-payment capability in all 1,242 of its stores in an effort expected to be completed by Saturday. The move will allow customers with mobile devices to pay via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay. The chain also said it is beefing up efforts to …
Read More »Eye on Merchants: CardFlight Says Small Business Sales Down; E-Commerce Sales Growth Continues
A decline in transactions at small and mid-size businesses accelerated through March as consumers react to shelter-at-home and social-distancing precautions, according to data from point-of-sale technology provider CardFlight Inc. But their spending shifted to e-commerce in many merchant categories, finds data from Signifyd, a vendor of e-commerce fraud solutions. Sales …
Read More »Consumers Warm to Digital Payments and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/2/20
Seventy-three percent of U.S. adults say they would be more or much more likely to use digital payments or digital banking services during a time of social distancing, according to a survey of 1,043 persons aged 18 and up by The Harris Poll on behalf of William Mills Agency. The canvass took …
Read More »In Response to Infection Concerns, the U.K. Raises Its Contactless Payment Cap by 50%
With much of the world locked down in combatting the novel coronavirus pandemic, a financial trade group in the United Kingdom said Tuesday the country would increase the spending limit on contactless transactions by 50% effective April 1. The move will allow consumers to pay without touching a keypad or …
Read More »Bridge, Tollway Authorities Toss Cash Acceptance Overboard, But Canadian Central Bank Urges Otherwise
Cash is fighting an uphill battle to remain a payment option during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Over the past week, a number of toll-highway and bridge authorities have ceased accepting cash to limit the spread of the highly infectious disease. According to local press reports, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Illinois …
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