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Prepaid cards usually get reloaded through direct deposit or when the cardholder takes cash to a merchant, who then swipes the card and receives confirmation that the value has been credited to the card. Now Visa Inc., in an effort to expand its Visa ReadyLink prepaid card reload network, is …
Read More »Public Sector Drives Network-Branded Prepaid Card Growth
The dollar value loaded onto so-called network-branded or open-loop prepaid cards grew nearly 45% last year, or nine times the growth rate of closed-loop cards, according to a new report from Mercator Advisory Group. Mercator's fifth annual study of network-branded cards says the public sector is emerging as one of …
Read More »Debit Study: No-Surcharge, Rewards Get Hot, Contactless Cools off
ATM surcharges often make the news when they hit a sensitive threshold such as $3, but the flip side of the story is the growth of options banks and credit unions offer customers to avoid paying the fees. According to newly released results from the Pulse electronic funds transfer network's …
Read More »JPMorgan Offers Insurers a Prepaid Visa Card for Workers’ Comp
The movement by card issuers and government entities to replace check-based benefit payments with prepaid cards entered a new category this week with JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s announcement it will issue a Visa card backed by workers' compensation funds. Unlike unemployment compensation, child-support payments, and other benefits that have backed …
Read More »Shift to Discount Stores Hurts First Data, But New Products Await
Merchant transaction volume increased by a healthy 11% at processor First Data Corp. in the second quarter, but a marked shift by consumers toward debit cards and spending at big discounters lowered margins at the card industry's biggest processor. Debit's growth has been outpacing credit's for years, but in a …
Read More »A MyGallons Rival Emerges to Let Users Lock in Gas Prices
While MyGallons LLC struggles with issues surrounding the launch last week of its prepaid card that lets consumers hedge the price of gas (Digital Transactions News, July 7), another startup is emerging with a similar business model. Boynton Beach, Fla.-based GasBankUSA LLC plans to start issuing debit cards later this …
Read More »A Prepaid Card That Lets Consumers Lock in Gas Prices Seeks a Network
A Miami-based startup says it signed up more than 5,000 cardholders in the first two days its service was commercially available last week in a program that allows consumers to lock in the current price of gasoline by prepaying for fuel. MyGallons LLC, which began its service last Monday after …
Read More »Merchants Should Consider Open-Loop Variants to Prepaid Cards
Merchants have embraced prepaid cards, particularly their in-store gift cards, but they could get even more value?and profits?from them by focusing less on breakage and anonymity and more on giving customers cards with more utility that keep track of their spending, according to a researcher who tracks the prepaid industry. …
Read More »Survey Finds Low Prepaid Market Penetration Among Underbanked
Despite lots of headlines, prepaid cards account for only a small share of payments by underbanked consumers, according to results of a survey released Monday by The Center for Financial Services Innovation, a non-profit affiliate of Chicago-based ShoreBank Corp. The national survey of 2,799 adults age 18 and older and …
Read More »Answering Analysts, First Data Keeps Mum About Chase Paymentech
When it comes to information about the uncertain future of Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the world's largest merchant acquirer, the analysts just weren't taking no for answer. The occasion was processor First Data Corp.'s first-quarter earnings conference call on Friday, during which the company also revealed that it had spent …
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