Pricing

Today's announcement by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that the chain will begin accepting MasterCard International's signature-based debit card again, effective immediately, could spark more interest in non-bank debit networks among small and mid-size retailers, according to some expert observers. Although Wal-Mart and MasterCard refused to disclose terms of their agreement, it …

PayPal Inc., the online payment processor owned by Internet auction powerhouse eBay Inc., is set to roll out new transaction fees Aug. 6 that it says will slash payment costs for most of its sellers. Merchants doing very large volumes will see the greatest benefit, while mid-tier sellers will see …

While the burgeoning digital song market has focused attention on the potential for micropayments in the U.S., a Canadian processor has signed about 1,000 online merchants, the most recent of which is Puretracks, Canada's first and largest purveyor of digital songs. Vancouver-based Paystone Technologies Corp., which was founded in 2001, …

When TNS Inc. announced late last month that it had bought U.S. Wireless Data's Synapse processing gateway, it said it was planning to use the gateway's non-wireline transaction capability to help open high-potential markets like fast food (Digital Transactions News, May 27). But equally important to the company's strategy is …

CyberSource Corp. says it has introduced a so-called PIN-less debit card payment option for online transactions at the urging of merchants looking for ways to cut their transaction costs. The Mountain View, Calif.-based payments gateway for e-commerce merchants claims to be the only major vendor offering the service, which would …

PayPal may be getting close to processing payments for online song downloads, but it's not likely to be moving more broadly into micropayments any time soon. The San Jose, Calif.-based payment-processing unit of online auctioneer eBay Inc. finished adding functionality to its system last month to handle song payments and …

A new national survey of debit card holders indicates a significant portion of consumers would be inclined to punish retailers and banks if they imposed fees or tried to restrict the range of accepted payment products. When asked how they would react if a merchant no longer accepted their debit …

Debitman Card Inc., a retailer-sponsored debit card network based in Chico, Calif., is moving aggressively on a new card-issuance plan that calls for increasing the base of Debitman-branded cards to just over 900,000 cards issued by 1,000 merchant outlets by the end of the year. The card base currently stands …

Peppercoin Inc., a micropayments processor in Waltham, Mass., sees a potential market for transactions of small and very small values reaching into the trillions of dollars, embracing both the online and point-of-sale markets. To tap that potential, the new company is moving toward a rollout, planned for mid-summer, of a …

Hypercom Corp., a supplier of point-of-sale transaction devices, has entered the electronic-transaction networking business with the formation of a new subsidiary, HBNet Inc. The new unit has been set up to compete with the dominant player in transaction networking, Reston, Va.-based Transaction Network Services Inc., which completed an initial public …