Visa Inc. may be readying a lower cap on credit card surcharges—moving from 4% to 3%—in April, but there’s no guarantee it will happen then. While a bulletin sent to large acquirers says the change to the brand rules will go into effect April 15, its implementation could be delayed, …
Read More »A Looming Capitol Hill Meetup Triggers A Renewed Assault on Efforts to Cap Credit Card Costs
As industry lobbyists prepare to converge on Capitol Hill next week, payments interest groups are issuing salvos designed to move the argument over limits on credit card acceptance costs in their favor. One such advance move came Thursday with an email campaign launched by the Electronic Payments Coalition citing a …
Read More »Klarna’s Loss Widens And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/28/23
Buy now, pay later provider Klarna AB said its 2022 loss of 10.47 billion krona ($1 billion) grew on its 2021 loss of 7.1 billion krona ($680 million). This comes amid growth in 2022. The United States became Klarna’s largest market in December. Also, Klarna will begin collecting late fees from United Kingdom consumers who miss a payment, …
Read More »Georgia Takes Aim At Interchange Levied on Sales Tax
Georgia has joined a small but growing number of states that have introduced legislation to ban the portion of credit and debit card transaction fees that apply to sales tax. The Georgia bill, introduced late last week by Georgia state senator Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro), proposes prohibiting the fees from being …
Read More »As Sellers’ Fees Rise, Satisfaction With Merchant Service Providers Declines, J.D. Power Finds
Merchant satisfaction with payment processors has dwindled in the past year, as sellers cope with the impact of inflation on their processing costs as well as on their business in general, according to J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Merchant Services Satisfaction Study. The merchant satisfaction score for merchant-services providers totaled 853, …
Read More »Holiday Traffic Is off to a Strong Start Despite Inflationary Pressures
Despite consumer concerns over higher prices caused by inflation, spending for the holiday shopping season got off to a strong start over the weekend. Total retail sales in the United States, including in-store and e-commerce transactions but excluding the automotive sector, were up more than 12% on Black Friday from …
Read More »Backed by a Merchant Group, a TV Ad Pushes the Case for Controlling Credit Card Costs
A prominent merchant trade group on Thursday began running a TV commercial that uses Visa Inc.’s sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup to decry credit card acceptance fees and advocate for a bill backed by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., that would regulate those costs. The 30-second commercial, which lays heavy …
Read More »COMMENTARY: It’s Time to Fix Payments. Here’s How to Do It
As one who has spent an entire career working with community banks, credit unions, and merchants, I can say it’s abundantly clear how they all suffer from a broken payments system, with the Fed’s automated clearing house being the lone exception. While merchants and community banks don’t share the same …
Read More »Crypto Exchange FTX Announces an Internationally Focused Debit Card Branded by Visa
One of the ways cryptocurrency is becoming more familiar to consumers and merchants is through debit cards backed by crypto holdings. The latest development in this trend came to light early Friday with an announcement that the crypto exchange FTX.com will offer Visa-branded debit cards around the world. A launch …
Read More »OnShift And Payactive Eliminate Earned Wage Access Fees for Senior Care Workers
OnShift Inc., a provider of human-capital management software for caregivers, is dropping the fees for earned-wage access through its digital wallet. OnShift’s wallet runs on the Payactiv platform. As part of the new arrangement, senior care workers using the OnShift wallet can access a portion of their earned wages outside …
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