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More than a month after officially unveiling its much-anticipated entry into the signature-debit card market, details of Discover Financial Services Inc.'s debit card strategy remain sketchy. Discover's sales pitch to financial institutions to issue its debit cards is built around its ability to offer issuers an interchange rate that is …
Read More »More Aussie Retailers Plan Surcharges for Credit Card Payments
In news that should interest those in the U.S electronic transactions business who are contemplating the possible effects of regulation of card interchange pricing, a new study shows that an increasing number of merchants in Australia?which three years ago introduced regulation of the fees merchants pay acquirers on card payments–are …
Read More »Consumers Put Cap on What They’ll Pay for Wireless Song Downloads
The wild popularity of song downloads has not only helped make a case for micropayments processing, it has drawn wireless carriers into the market with the idea that consumers will pay significantly more than the standard online rate of 99 cents per track for the convenience of loading songs over …
Read More »Nokia Pilots Indicate User Willingness to Pay for Mobile TV Channels
In three out of four European consumer tests of mobile television, more than half of the users said they'd be willing to pay for TV content on their handhelds, according to pilot results released today by Nokia, whose phones were involved in all four pilots. The sums these participants said …
Read More »How Interchange Wars Are Lending Impetus to Instant Issuance
Heightened tensions over interchange fees are helping to fuel expansion in the market for so-called instant issuance of payment plastics. Englewood, Colo.-based Dynamic Card Solutions, which produces software that lets banks issue Visa- and MasterCard-branded debit cards on the spot to customers, says its revenue grew 53% in 2005, without …
Read More »Interchange Caps Not Wanted, C-Stores Chief Tells Congress
The battle over interchange, which has already spawned some 47 antitrust suits against the bank card networks and major banks, reached the U.S. Congress today as advocates for both retailers and banks traded sometimes barbed arguments before a panel holding a one-day hearing to look into the networks' pricing mechanism. …
Read More »Could Merchants Use POS Readers, M-Wallet to Skirt Interchange?
In building out a network of point-of-sale readers to accept their contactless cards and tokens, banks and their card associations could be creating an infrastructure that will also support payments based on new mobile-payment technologies like Motorola Corp.'s M-Wallet software that could bypass the lucrative credit card interchange system, one …
Read More »A Processing Exec Outlines Practical Steps to Save on Interchange
Merchants upset about interchange pricing may or may not ultimately prevail in their pending litigation against the bank card networks, but any outcome is likely to be years away. For now, there are practical steps retailers and service providers can take to cut acceptance costs, an executive with a major …
Read More »Retailers’ Interchange Suits May Help AmEx More Than Merchants
Merchant litigation against bank card interchange may end up benefiting bank card network competitors like American Express Co. more than retailers, a Wall Street analyst who has followed the interchange controversy cautioned this week. If successful in forcing Visa USA and MasterCard International and their members to cut interchange rates, …
Read More »Interchange Cases To Yield Consolidated Complaint in 60 Days
A consolidated complaint arising from some 47 interchange lawsuits filed by merchants and merchant groups against the bank card associations over the past seven months will likely emerge within 60 days, with certification of a class coming by fall, a lawyer representing some of the merchants said today. The various …
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