Customer demand has prompted CheapAir.com to accept three more cryptocurrencies in addition to Bitcoin, which the travel-booking site began accepting in 2013. The new ones are Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Dash. These three currencies promise faster transaction times and lower fees than Bitcoin and are the most-requested cryptocurrencies among those customers …
Read More »An iPayment Tie-in With Aliant Will Harness More ISO Horsepower for Crypto Acceptance
The same force that decades ago hit the streets and made credit and debit card acceptance nearly universal is revving up in a nascent effort to do the same for cryptocurrency. Aliant Payment Systems, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based independent sales organization that has been marketing Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin acceptance …
Read More »Credit Unions Hold the Line on ATM Fees, Bankrate Study Finds
Bankrate LLC’s latest study of checking account pricing at credit unions found that ATM surcharges and foreign fees haven’t changed much in the past year. The April study of the top 50 credit unions by deposits revealed that ATM surcharges—fees charged by ATM owners to non-customers who use their machines—actually …
Read More »An Airline Group Is Developing a Payment System That Would Bypass the Card Networks
An airline trade group has teamed up with Germany’s Deutsche Bank to develop a payment system that would bypass the credit card networks, potentially saving users billions in interchange. The proposal comes from the International Air Transport Association, which says it has 280 members representing 83% of air traffic. The …
Read More »A Disappointed Investor Sues Ripple, Alleging Its XRP Is a Security, Not a Digital Currency
Ripple Labs Inc. has notched a number of successes lately for its distributed-ledger technology, but now it finds its cryptocurrency, known as XRP, is caught up in a lawsuit that reflects a larger debate over whether such digital tokens constitute securities. Ryan Coffey, an investor who bought XRP in January …
Read More »Shift4 Is Embroiled in an Antitrust Suit Alleging It Shuts out Rival Restaurant Processors
The ongoing consolidation of companies focused on point-of-sale systems for restaurants gave rise on Tuesday to an antitrust suit that seeks to reverse one of the most recent mergers among payment processors. Payment Logistics Ltd., a San Diego-based payments provider, alleges in its complaint that Shift4 Payments LLC is using …
Read More »Bitcoin’s Costs Have Plunged In Recent Months, But Its Volatile Value Could Scare Merchants
When the price of Bitcoin spiraled to dizzying heights last year, so did its costs for those who wanted to exchange the digital currency rather than hoard it. Places that accepted Bitcoin, some of them for years, announced they would stop taking it. Since December, Bitcoin’s price has famously slid …
Read More »MoneyGram Cements Its Ties With Walmart Through New International Service
Wire-transfer provider MoneyGram International Inc. and Walmart Inc. announced a new international service Tuesday dubbed Walmart2World that the companies say enables recipients to get funds in as little as 10 minutes. The long-time partners also renewed for two years the contract under which Walmart offers MoneyGram’s various money-transfer and bill-pay …
Read More »Litecoin Founder Charlie Lee: ‘We’re Targeted Toward Payments’
Lately, the cryptocurrency craze has raised any number of questions, but probably the most pressing one for the payments business is whether any of these hundreds of tokens can ever succeed as an actual payment device. But while fluctuating trading values plague all of the digital currencies, one stands out …
Read More »A Vending-Payments Processor Applies Cryptocurrency to Crack the Market for Micropayments
Remember micropayments? Most payments providers gave up on this class of electronic payments several years ago when it became apparent that technology couldn’t crack the problem of high-cost transactions applied to very low-value goods. But now at least one player is attacking the market with cryptocurrency. On Track Innovations Ltd., …
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