MasterCard is evaluating the next step for its contactless payment program following the conclusion of its PayPass test using a chip-based card in Orlando and as it nears the conclusion of a test involving the use of cell phones as a payment device in Dallas. The card company is expected …

A payment service that allows Internet content and service providers to bill their customers via their phone bill has been gaining momentum. Although San Jose, Calif.-based PaymentOne, a billing service for 50 large Internet service companies, provides those companies with six different payment options, the PhoneBill choice is being used …

A company offering a biometric-based technology that allows consumers to pay at the point of sale without presenting a card, keyfob, token, or any other payment media has installed a new management team and is laying plans for a major expansion in 2004. San Francisco-based Pay By Touch is running …

After an acrimonious summer in which TCF Financial Corp. first complained about the costly Visa/MasterCard settlement in the Wal-Mart case, and then complained even more bitterly when Visa threatened to levy a penalty on TCF if it switched debit brands, the Minneapolis-based bank has come to terms with Visa and …

A service that has been in alpha test for the past three months to allow consumers to make micropayments for entertainment services is expected to be rolled out in the next month. Early participants in the service offered by Waltham, Mass.-based Peppercoin Inc. include Music Rebellion, an online service that …

Issuers of debit cards tied to flexible-spending accounts may be breathing a sigh of relief now that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) unit of the federal Department of Health & Human Services has sent a letter to a marketer of one such card exempting its product from …

The state of Iowa is in the final stages of its statewide rollout of debit cards to recipients in the state’s food-stamp program, a year later than an Oct. 1, 2002, deadline mandated for all states in federal legislation passed in 1996. Only California among the 50 states now remains …

NetBank Inc., which bills itself as the nation’s first commercially successful Internet bank, has agreed to acquire privately held Financial Technologies Inc., for cash and $1 million in restricted stock. Tommy Glenn, Jr., founder and president of FTI, says in a statement released today that the combination with NetBank will …

For years, retailers have sought ways to allow their customers to pay electronically while bypassing bank networks and fees. Now some fast-food franchisees are turning to proprietary smart cards–with or without interest from their corporate parents. Los Angeles-based TranStar Systems Inc. has either installed or has orders for systems in …

Transaction processor Vital, a joint venture owned by Visa USA and TSYS, is pushing on multiple fronts into new markets. The Tempe, Ariz.-based company is gearing up to grab a chunk of the market for PIN-based debit, in part by demonstrating to merchants how the money they now save on …