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
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
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
Vesta Corporation has announced the launch of Prepaid.com, a recharge portal that allows mobile customers to send airtime to friends and family worldwide. According to Vesta, “the portal features immediate, no-fee recharging for prepaid mobile phone accounts and allows expatriates and immigrants to maintain strong family ties, regardless of distance and borders.” Prepaid.com provides mobile operators with a plug and play solution that supports in-country and cross-border recharge for mobile services such as prepaid airtime, subscriptions, and mobile broadband. The new portal helps mobile operators capitalize on the billions of cross-border payments sent annually, and includes a variety of consumer-friendly…
Source: Vesta Launches Prepaid.com Payment Portal for Prepaid Mobile Operators
Vancouver Sun: Wirelesss carriers offer a system to turn your cellphone into a payment machine (Zoompass/Canada) Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated. For job opportunities available for payments professionals, visit PaymentsJobs.com. Employers looking to hire payments professionals can post their job openings there as well.
Source: Headline News – March 8, 2010