Cards

Alabama State Employees Credit Union has filed the first class action by a financial services company against Target Corp. over costs from the massive card security data breach.

The Coinstar brand has long been associated with spare change, but for Blackhawk it's the key to a diversified strategy for prepaid products and a catalyst for mobile wallet adoption.

Target Corp., less than two weeks after disclosing a security breach of its credit- and debit-card system, said some customers have been unable to use its gift cards because they weren't fully activated.

As the impact of Target's data breach continues to widen, credit unions have been more responsive than banks when it comes to issuing new cards, according to two recent online surveys.

Family Focus FCU is helping members whose debit cards have been blocked due to the Target breach still receive 24/7 access to their money.

Guardian Credit Union plans to offer its members the Buzz Points merchant-funded debit loyalty program, which emphasizes social media interaction.

Brazil will boost levies on withdrawals abroad to restrain a widening current account deficit and prevent a six-percentage point gap in tax levels from reducing the use of credit cards.

Google Wallet users who request the accompanying plastic card can activate that card through the wallet's mobile app, a process that will become increasingly common as mobile payments advance, experts say.

The payments industry is full of big ideas that haven't always found the right audience. As we enter 2014, a few trends are bringing new relevance to some older technologies.

Target Corp. said data related to shoppers' personal identification numbers was stolen during the recent breach of its debit and credit card system and that it's "confident" customers' accounts haven't been compromised because the information was encrypted.

Debit spending increased 12% on the shopping days following Thanksgiving, according to payments processor The Members Group.

A week ago Sunday at about 10:00 a.m., Jim Wells was on his way from church to a grandson's birthday party, when he popped into Target to pick up a gift. By the time he returned home from the party at about 3:30, there was a voicemail message on his machine from Citibank's fraud control department asking him to call because they thought there might have been fraud on his account.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased spending and withdrawal limits it imposed on 2 million customers who used debit cards at Target Corp. during the retailer's data breach.

Decoupled debit cards, which draw funds from an account at a separate issuer, are typically framed as a low-cost alternative to bank cards. But in the wake of the massive Target Corp. data breach, security may have suddenly become the product's biggest selling point.

JPMorgan Chase and other banks are restricting debit card use by consumers potentially exposed to the retailer's recent data breach, according to reports.

For banks, the most obvious reaction to the recent compromise of 40 million cards at Target stores would be to re-issue credit and debit cards to all customers who shopped at the retailer. But this approach doesn't seem to be universal.

Card payments account for more than two-thirds of all noncash payments in the U.S., and the number of checks written for payment is less than half of what is was a decade ago, according to the Federal Reserve Bank Services' 2013 payments study.

The credit-card issuer has agreed to loosen its restrictions on fees charged by retailers to consumers, following a similar move by Visa and MasterCard.

Target has confirmed the compromise of the credit and debit card data of 40 million Target shoppers and says the problem has been identified and resolved. However, thieves are selling the card account information as fast as they can on underground sites, according to security blogger and expert Brian Krebs.

Epay, a prepaid product provider and distribution network, is now offering its digital gift card through PayPal's Digital Gift store, which launched in early December.