The growing market in DVD rentals from vending machines became more competitive this week when video-rental icon Blockbuster Inc. announced a deal with NCR Corp. in which the maker of ATMs, other banking hardware, and kiosks this quarter will begin deploying the first of what it expects could be 10,000 …

Mobile-payments processor Obopay Inc., which is increasing its fee to send money to 25 cents from 10 cents effective Aug. 7, says it has not had complaints from users despite the more than doubling in the transaction price. “We're pleased we got it right,” says Gregory Holmes, president of Obopay …

Innovative Card Technologies Inc., a 15-year-old maker of high-tech bank cards, expects to have pilots under way with U.S. financial institutions by the end of September for its primary product, a credit-card-sized device that generates a one-time pass code for online transactions. Steven R. Delcarson, chief executive of the Los …

A startup that lets consumers use their credit cards to make mortgage payments and meet other credit obligations online is talking to lenders about including its payment service when consumers close on loans. Because the service doesn't charge billers for payments, company officials expect the tie-ins will carry considerable appeal …

The share of bills consumers pay the old-fashioned way via the regular mail continues to decline, according to the U.S. Postal Service's most recent annual study about what goes through the mails. But despite the gains of electronic bill payments, the availability of free bill-pay service at most banks may …

Data breaches are running at record levels, according to the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center, a non-profit that tracks cybercrime. ITRC says it recorded 342 data breaches from Jan. 1 through June 24, up 69% from the same period in 2007. But, like the origins and perpetrators of so …

Regulators seeking to rein in so-called remotely created checks aren't going far enough to contain the risk these payment devices pose?particularly when they are processed electronically, says one payments expert. “I think they should ban them,” says George F. Thomas, chief executive at Radix Consulting, Oakdale, N.Y., and a former …

Just as some merchant-acquiring industry lobbyists predicted earlier this year, a revenue-generating proposal that would force acquirers to report their clients' card-based sales to the Internal Revenue Service is making headway in Congress. The proposal is part of the Senate's foreclosure-relief bill that could be up for a vote as …

Eyeing opportunities in the U.S. person-to-person payments market, MasterCard Worldwide announced on Thursday it plans to begin testing a service based on mobile phones later this year and introduce a commercial service early in 2009. The card network will use its existing MoneySend remittance system to clear and settle transactions, …

Merchants have embraced prepaid cards, particularly their in-store gift cards, but they could get even more value?and profits?from them by focusing less on breakage and anonymity and more on giving customers cards with more utility that keep track of their spending, according to a researcher who tracks the prepaid industry. …