Visa Inc. is taking steps to more actively recruit consumers in its fraud-fighting efforts, including the development of an early-warning system that notifies cardholders in real-time when their cards are being used. Visa's Transaction Alert system, currently in pilot at banks including U.S. Bank, PNC Corp., and Wells Fargo & …

In another example of tax payments going electronic, processor Metavante Corp.'s Link2Gov subsidiary has added Bill Me Later as an option that consumers and businesses can use to pay federal taxes. Assuming all goes as planned, the deal announced on Tuesday should bring more transaction volume to Metavante, the payment …

Online merchants shouldn't wait for chargebacks to indicate a problem with fraudulent orders. Instead, they should pay attention to other indicators, such as the volume of canceled orders, to anticipate whether a wave of chargebacks is about to hit. That's the argument Dave Moriarty, director of data mining at Apple …

Discover Financial Services this week unveiled a teen-oriented prepaid card called Current by Discover. Current is the latest entrant in a niche that includes the Visa Buxx and Allow MasterCard, prepaid cards that may have garnered more headlines than users. But Discover says its new card has straightforward pricing and …

A new service from specialty payment-services provider Highway Toll Administration LLC seeks to boost electronic toll-booth payments by making toll transponders available to customers who reserve rental cars through the big online travel booking site Travelocity.com. Great Neck, N.Y.-based HTA introduced the mail-order service, called TravelPass, Jan. 29. “The TravelPass …

The latest credit card charge-volume figures from the nation's top three banks show big declines, portending weak results when other issuers, merchant acquirers, and Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. report their fourth-quarter earnings in coming days. On Friday, Bank of America Corp. reported fourth-quarter purchase volume of $56.6 billion on …

Kount Inc., a startup that specializes in anti-fraud solutions for e-commerce, is looking for accelerated growth from its alliance with Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the nation’s largest processor of card-not-present transactions. The agreement, which was signed in September but not announced until this week, gives Kount access to Chase’s merchant …

Many studies have documented the rise of card, automated clearing house, and other forms of electronic payments, but a new one from Hitachi Consulting and the Bank Administration Institute sheds some light on just how consumers divide their payments behavior. According to the nationwide study of 3,308 consumers who completed …

A 3-year-old technology firm called Better ATM Services Inc. that configures ATMs to dispense prepaid cards is moving beyond its Phoenix-area proving grounds with local restaurants and into a test involving Amazon.com gift cards. If it works, distribution of network-branded prepaid cards could be next. During the upcoming holiday-season pilot …

Not all merchants choose independent sales organizations and acquirers the same way, and when they do, they do so for widely disparate reasons, says a research report released this week by Aite Group LLC, Boston. Yet “ISOs and acquirers are not differentiating among merchants” with respect to direct marketing and …