Merchant Account Services in Canada

In an 8-K filing with the SEC this morning, Visa updated some selected volume data: February, U.S. aggregate payments volume growth was positive 12% versus the prior year period. Further broken down, U.S. credit payments volume growth was positive 2% and debit payments volume growth was positive 20%. February cross border payments volume on a constant dollar basis was positive 11% over the prior year period. February processed transactions grew positive 13% globally. 2011 free cash flow is expected to exceed $2 billion.

Source: Visa Updates Volume, Growth Statistics

Source: Q&A with Shawn Miles, MasterCard: “The continued availability of credit is helping retailers drive transactions”

Visa is holding an Investor Day on Thursday, March 11, beginning at 8 AM Pacific time. Here are the links for the webcasts of the morning session and the afternoon session.

Source: Visa Holding Investor Day Thursday, March 11

Source: Q&A with Shawn Miles, MasterCard: “The continued availability of credit is helping retailers drive transactions”

Bank of America has announced that “beginning this summer it will only authorize single debit card transactions at the point of sale if a customer has enough money in their account at the time. This change will help customers by reducing the likelihood they may inadvertently overdraw their account and thus eliminate unexpected overdraft fees on these transactions. Customers will still have the choice to link their checking account to another account through Overdraft Protection to cover these types of transactions.” “Our customers have been clear that they want to know if a purchase is going to overdraw their account,”…

Source: Bank of America Plans to Change Debit Card Overdraft Practices

Source: Q&A with Shawn Miles, MasterCard: “The continued availability of credit is helping retailers drive transactions”

The UK Payments Council has released new data on fraud losses for the full year 2009 that show that “total fraud losses on UK cards fell by 28 per cent between 2008 and 2009 to £440.3 million – a decrease of £170 million on the previous year’s total.” According to the Council, “the combined force of industry initiatives such as: chip and PIN; the increasing use of sophisticated fraud detection tools by banks and retailers; and the work of the DCPCU , the banking-sponsored special police unit, have all helped contribute to this fall. It is the first time that…

Source: UK Card and Banking Fraud Losses Down 28% in 2009 to £440.3MM

Have you ever wondered how much a fast food shop pays in credit card processing fees?  I have, since transaction size tends to be small (one component in the calculation of fees is transaction size). Since healthy sandwich shops seem to be the craze, let’s examine a sandwich shop.
So for an example, let’s look at [...]

Source: Credit Card Processing for Fast Food/Small Restaurants

Source: Q&A with Shawn Miles, MasterCard: “The continued availability of credit is helping retailers drive transactions”

First Data Corporation has released its First Data SpendTrend™ analysis for February 2010 – finding that “same-store dollar volume was up 8.4% (7.4% excluding gasoline stations) with employment showing signs of stabilization. Average tickets were up 1.4%, the first year-over-year increase since July 2008.” SpendTrend tracks same-store consumer spending via credit, signature debit, PIN debit and EBT cards at U.S. merchant locations. As consumers spent more and saved less during the month, their discretionary purchases increased at general merchandise stores including value retailers. Same-store dollar volume growth for retail merchants overall increased to 8.0% in February, up from 5.4% in…

Source: First Data Releases February 2010 SpendTrend™ Results