Credit

Credit cardholders in the United Kingdom generally are uninspired by balance-transfer offers trying to lure them into obtaining new cards, instead preferring security and rewards pitches, the results of a recent cards industry study suggest.

Taking mobile payments to new heights, MasterCard Worldwide soon will conduct a test of contactless-based payments at 30,000 feet, enabling passengers to purchase refreshments using its contactless PayPass technology aboard planes from WestJet, a Calgary, Alberta-based airline.

CHICAGO–The mobile-commerce market is littered with various wallet models, acceptance devices and applications, and this is forcing merchant-service providers to seek out ways to bring the elements together to help retailers maximize the channel’s potential, notes one mobile-payments executive.

TD Retail Card Services will issue credit cards on behalf of outdoor power equipment manufacturer Cub Cadet, the retail card issuer announced Oct. 24.

Citigroup Inc. has reached an agreement with Sears Holdings Corp. to continue issuing private-label credit cards for the retailer and its core brands, which include Sears, Kmart and Lands’ End, the companies announced Oct. 25.

Australian consumers plan to reduce their use of credit cards for holiday shopping and instead will rely on their own savings to pay, new survey data suggest.

The recent spate of credit card portfolio sales is helping boost more than just the buyers and seller. The behind-the-scenes players are seeing potential opportunities, too.

All South Korean point-of-sale terminals now accept China UnionPay cards through a deal with South Korea’s BC Card Co., the companies announced Oct. 21.

ZAO Citibank has launched a free service that enables Moscow residents to pay their city real-estate, telephone and energy bills automatically by billing to their Citibank debit or credit card accounts, the Moscow-based company announced Oct. 17.

Accepting card payments with a mobile phone is becoming as American as baseball and apple pie now that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is selling the Square Inc. reader that turns any smartphone into a card-acceptance device.

Travelex Global Business Payments Inc. is using new software to offer an online payment program designed to save U.S. universities time and money by eliminating manual tracking when various exchange fees cause an international student’s payments to be less than what is owed, the Washington, D.C.-based company announced Oct. 13.

The recent arrests in New York related to what some have called the biggest counterfeit credit card scheme in U.S. history prompted some observers to suggest that recent actions in the U.S. to adopt chip card technology could put an end to such crimes.

Discover Financial Services on Oct. 23 launched a redesigned version of its website that promotes more than just credit cards, PaymentsSource has learned.

United Solutions Co., a credit union service organization owned by five area credit unions and one former credit union, has agreed to license the card-customization technology owned by Serverside Group.

Performance reports from Oct. 17 seemed to confirm the new equilibrium in the credit card universe.

Genome projects map the relationship between human DNA and musical preferences, so why not that of consumers and their cards?

Total Systems Services Inc., or TSYS, has purchased the Vanguard Payment Systems Inc. portfolio of 1,200 merchant accounts, which now will receive service through TSYS Merchant Solutions, the Columbus, Ga.-based payments processor announced Oct. 21.

Capital One Financial Corp. is looking for another private-label credit card portfolio to buy on the heels of absorbing the U.S. card business of HSBC Bank USA and last year’s acquisition of the Kohl’s Corp. store card portfolio, CEO Richard Fairbank told analysts Oct. 20.

Google Wallet is riding on an active trend to connect retailer loyalty programs to mobile-payment systems.

Days after South Korea’s card networks agreed to slash the interchange rates they apply to credit card acceptance at small merchants, the Korean government has said that it would strive to unify their rates.