Merchants that have spent years battling card-acceptance fees are turning a jaundiced eye toward a proposal to speed up payments on the nation’s automated clearing house network. That’s because the same-day settlement proposal, floated in December by NACHA, the ACH’s rules-setting organization, contains a so-called interbank fee that, for some …

Apple Inc. chief executive Tim Cook said Monday that nearly 700,000 U.S. merchant locations now accept the Apple Pay mobile-payment service, compared with the 220,000 locations reported to have accepted the service when it launched last October. Since Apple Pay relies on near-field communication (NFC) contactless technology to enable Apple’s iPhone …

Online-commerce company Shopify Inc. has made its Shopify POS app free for its merchants and introduced an iPhone version of the payments service, the company recently announced. The app, which launched in 2013, includes a card reader. The new app replaces the Accept Payment option in Shopify Mobile, the Ottawa, Ontario-based company’s …

Ever since its launch, proponents of Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payments service have touted the wallet’s high-tech security features, including tokenization of card credentials, a secure element in the phone locking down those credentials, and fingerprint authentication. But now, only four months after that much-heralded launch, banks that support Apple …

  Consumers holding credit cards issued by private-label card issuer Synchrony Financial and credit and debit cards issued by U.S. Bank will be able to use their cards with Samsung Pay, a mobile-payment service available this summer. Samsung Electronics Co. announced Samsung Pay Sunday. It can use either near-field communication …

  Consumers wielding multiple credit and debit cards in their wallets have yet another service to use to consolidate them into one electronic payment card. Stratos Inc. on Tuesday introduced its Stratos Bluetooth Connected Card that enables consumers to load multiple cards onto the electronic device. The card begins shipping …

By Jim Daly The big warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale Corp. announced Monday an agreement with Citigroup Inc. to replace its current cobranded card from American Express Co. next April with a Citi-issued Visa credit card. But Costco also announced a companion agreement with Visa Inc. under which other Visa-branded credit …

When it comes to general-purpose mobile payments, PayPal Inc. is far and away the leader, having posted $46 billion in mobile charge volume last year. But recently, the mobile-payments spotlight has been trained on Apple Inc. with its new Apple Pay service, Google Inc. and the suddenly brightening prospects for …

The Gimlet Eye This magazine has been covering near-field communication (NFC) technology for payments at least since early 2006, when the first big field trial took place at a stadium in Atlanta. So we’re conversant with the advantages and drawbacks, the drama and the doldrums, associated with this exciting mobile-payments …

Security Notes Its roots are old and its practice common: Whether gift cards, concert tickets, or a retainer paid to your lawyer, the idea of paying ahead of receiving the intended merchandise, or the agreed-upon service, is implemented with great versatility. What drives this practice? The service provider surely loves …