Merchant

Independent sales organizations can present themselves as consultants by specializing in offering card-acceptance services to just one or two types of clients and really getting to know those businesses.

Mention the word “collections,” and the stereotype that comes to mind for many customers is the unpleasant phone call that arrives during dinner or as they’re settling in to relax and watch TV for the evening.

Small merchants often have only the foggiest notion of what constitutes a secure electronic payment, so a security vendor specializing in Payment Card Industry data-security standards compliance is providing a primer on the subject.

India’s largest and most populous state of Uttar Pradesh plans to enable customers to pay their electricity bills online in hopes of providing a smoother experience and increase revenues.

Isis’ May 15 announcement of an expanded list of merchants who will participate in the soft launch this summer in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas, should clarify to the industry that the telco-led mobile-commerce platform inevitably will roll out nationally, an Isis executive tells PaymentsSource.

The U.S. mortgage delinquency rate declined in the first quarter to the lowest level since 2008 as an improving job market helped more borrowers pay their bills and tighter lending standards resulted in fewer defaults, according to a report Wednesday from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The national credit card delinquency rate (the rate of borrowers 90 or more days past due) dropped to 0.73% in the first quarter ended March 31, from 0.78% in the previous quarter, with current levels well below historical norms, according to TransUnion's Trend Data report.

Ottawa, Canada, has joined a growing list of North American cities supporting mobile payments for parking.

Consumer credit card and mortgage spending slowed from a year ago, with the average credit card debt per consumer falling 13% to $5,650 and the average mortgage debt decreasing 3% to $166,631, according to CreditKarma.com's U.S. Credit Score Climate Report.

CFS II, a Tulsa, Okla.-based debt collection agency, is scouting offices in North Carolina to potentially open a call center with as many as 2,000 jobs, according to company officials.