Credit

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is giving its three top credit card program customers several options to redeem points and buy gifts for the holiday season, a move that will “create buzz” for the products and may help spur consumers to move back to using credit cards more often for holiday shopping, analysts say.

LAS VEGAS–Mobile-wallet providers Google Inc. and Isis continue to position their products as more than just payments vehicles to replace plastic cards.

MasterCard Worldwide has entered into a partnership with Taiwan-based online retailers PayEasy Co. Ltd. and GoHappy Co. Ltd. to offer a cross-border shopping service, the payment card brand announced Nov. 1.

Alfa-Bank has received Russia's first certification for Visa Inc.’s payWave contactless-payment platform for credit and debit cards.

Consumers are complaining less about the way credit card companies treat them following the 2010 implementation of the Credit Card Accountability, Disclosure and Responsibility Act, new survey data from Consumer Reports suggest.

Income growth may be stagnant and consumer confidence weak, but spending has been “surprisingly resilient” and has helped fuel modest revenue increases for First Data Corp., executives told industry analysts Nov. 2 while discussing third-quarter earnings.

MasterCard Worldwide will offer special incentives to certain merchants to offset the effects of new Federal Reserve Board rules requiring debit cards to carry at least two card-network brands in contrast to Visa’s plan to offer broad merchant incentives, Ajay Banga, MasterCard chairman and CEO, told analysts Nov. 2.

Citing higher purchase volumes for credit and debit cards in all regions, MasterCard Worldwide earned net income of $717 million for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up 38.4% from $518 million a year earlier, the company said Nov. 2.

Can "Stop.Think.Connect" become the new "Stop, Drop and Roll"?

Bellco Credit Union launched a photo contest as part of a social media initiative to select potential new Visa card designs.

Using an effective online banking data-security method customers view as nonintrusive represents the best option for financial institutions as fraud-prevention capabilities increasingly become key factors in consumer choice, a fraud expert suggests in a recent study report.

Debt buyer Encore Capital Group Inc. last week reported increases in third quarter net income, revenue and cash collections and revealed details about a new state investigation into its collection practices.

Portfolio Recovery Associates, a Norfolk, Va.-based debt buyer, reported across-the-board gains in third quarter cash collections, earnings and revenues.

China UnionPay and Japan Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co. have launched Japan's first China UnionPay platinum credit card, the companies announced Oct. 26.

Bank of China Ltd. will offer American Express-branded credit cards to its private-banking customers, the two companies announced Oct. 26.

A U.S. district court halted a collection operation that allegedly deceived and abused consumers, including making bogus threats that consumers had been sued or could be arrested over debts they often did not owe.

A U.S. district court, responding to charges by the Federal Trade Commission, found a credit repair seller in contempt for violating a previous court order that required him to stop promoting worthless credit repair products and services to consumers.

Heartland Payment Systems reported favorable third-quarter earnings Oct. 27, but it is still too early to tell if its “Durbin Dollars” promotion is paying off, an analyst says.

Linkable Networks Inc. is putting a new spin on merchant-funded rewards with a system that enables consumers to link retail offers they see in various advertisements online, in print and on television directly to a credit or debit card account.

Bracing for the loss of some debit transactions as a result of new Federal Reserve rules requiring debit cards to carry at least two card network brands, Visa Inc. next year plans to ramp up a series of incentives for merchants and acquirers, Joe Saunders, Visa chairman and CEO, told analysts Oct. 26.