Technology

The average charge-off rate on U.S. consumer credit cards inched upward in February, ending a streak of five consecutive months of declines. But the uptick is the result of “seasonal patterns” and is unlikely to affect the general trend of improving card-portfolio health, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

A start-up person-to-person payments network is teaming with a daily-deals service to tie the use of coupons to a customer’s prepaid card.

Diners at Field of Greens and VooDoo BBQ & Grill may receive discount coupons and eventually may pay for purchases through Mobibucks Corp.’s mobile marketing and payment service under a deal Mobibucks announced with the two restaurants March 21.

First Data Corp. is rolling out a mobile-coupon program for merchants called mVoucher that uses 2-D barcodes and text messages, the Atlanta-based processor announced March 22 at the International CTIA Wireless convention in Orlando.

FreeScore LLC now offers an iPhone app that consumers can use to receive their credit scores and calculate mortgage rates.

T8 Webware said March 21 it is offering new mobile capabilities for its card personalization software over Apple’s iPad.

Fifth Third Processing Solutions announced March 21 it will be offering Planet Payment’s Pay in Your Currency service, which will allow international cardholders using eligible cards to see the final amount of a cash withdrawal in their home currency at the time of the transaction.

Allied First Bancorp Inc. of Oswego, Ill., is using technology from VSoft Corp. for remote deposit capture services, the companies announced March 21.

In offering to market third-party software to its customers, Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC is going beyond what many payment companies do when they open their platform to developers.

The banking lobby is pushing to delay caps on debit interchange fees, but JPMorgan Chase & Co. is sending the message that it has already accepted defeat.