Credit

Banks are taking a tag-team approach to attract customers in the increasingly automated health care market, bundling commercial lending services with payments, technology management and other services.

John A. Ward 3rd, a veteran of the card and banking industries, has rejoined the board of Innovative Card Technologies Inc.

BluePay has developed a processing product designed to help nonprofit organizations increase funding and decrease expenses by enabling consumers to set up reoccurring donations, according to the company.

VeriFone Holdings Inc. today announced it has acquired the Taxi Media business from Clear Channel Outdoor Inc., a division of Clear Channel Communications Inc. The deal expands VeriFone’s taxi sales staff to about 30 workers from a “handful” previously, a VeriFone spokesperson tells PaymentsSource.

Historically rivals, alternative payment providers and banks are laying down their swords.

American Express Co.’s focus on providing products and services to the small-business segment through its new AcceptPay product is “a savvy move”, according to Ed Kountz, senior analyst, e-business and channel strategy, at Javelin Strategy & Research. AmEx recently launched the online invoicing product and a corresponding advertising campaign to promote it (see story)

Anyone who has seen advertisements from Visa Inc.'s "Currency of Progress" campaign can't help noticing a stark contrast in its corporate message.

American Express Co. has begun enabling its cardholders to transfer Membership Rewards points to British Airways, the 17th airline to become a points-transfer partner, the company says. Other airlines include JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines.

While the economy had stunted credit card direct mailings in the past year, mailings will pick up again after the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 goes into effect in February, experts say.

Hoping to tap an emerging market, Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and American Express Co. have been working to open their networks to third-party developers of software and smartphone applications.

High card-payment transaction costs are helping to keep the number of European vending machines that accept noncash payments low, Jürgen Göbel, chairman of European Vending Association’s cashless committee, tells PaymentsSource. The trade group represents 63 vending-machine companies and 20 national vending associations in Europe, where at least 3.8 million machines produced 2008 revenues of 13 billion euros (US$18.6 billion), the trade group says.

Luup International Ltd. plans to establish a mobile phone-based remittance service for the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, a spokesperson for the Norway-based payments provider tells PaymentsSource. The service will enable the approximately 500,000 Indonesians in the United Arab Emirates to transfer funds home.

Thanks to the improving economy, Kasikornbank may lower the minimum salary requirements applicants need to obtain credit cards, a spokesperson for the Thailand-based financial institution tells PaymentsSource.

So-called power moms–those who meticulously shop for their families–prefer to use debit cards or cash to pay for purchases instead of credit cards, according to CheapToday.com, a Web site that features sale offers from various large U.S. merchants. The site regularly polls its members about financial and retail-shopping issues, says Chris Hill, president and CEO. In a survey earlier this month in which 134 power moms responded, 43% reported using Visa check cards for their holiday purchases, while 14% chose to pay with debit MasterCards. Of the other respondents, 32% reported using cash or checks to pay, 3% reported using retail store cards, 2% reported using American Express cards, and 6% reported using other options such as gift cards and Discover card. Respondents supplied myriad anecdotal comments on why they chose using debit cards instead of credit cards, Hill says. “We got a lot of responses around the credit hangover everyone experienced in 2009,” says Hill, noting that shoppers were specific about singling out credit as an undesirable choice. “One person said used she used her check book and was trying to hard not to use credit this year, so there’s a very conscious movement away from credit.” Survey participants tended to use cash to control how much they spent this year, he says. “When they did use credit, there was a negative connotation. But people love debit cards,” says Hill. For example, one respondent said she “unfortunately” had to use credit cards to get by this year.

American Express Co.’s Open small-business division has launched a national television spot that features 10 small-business entrepreneurs to demonstrate the functionality of its new AcceptPay invoice product. The ad’s subjects show how AcceptPay can help them get paid faster. In the spot, AmEx encourages small-business owners to ask their own questions about the service by logging on to OpenForum.com, an online resource and networking site for business owners. AmEx says it is planning future ads but did not disclose details.

American Express Co.’s small-business division, called Open, last week launched AcceptPay, an online invoicing and payment product designed to help merchants improve cash flow during these tough economic times. AcceptPay enables business owners to create, send and track invoices through one Web site. Through AcceptPay, customers can pay invoices using a major credit or debit card, cash or check, which businesses could convert into an electronic automated clearinghouse payment. The system deposits payments directly into the business owner's bank account.

Unlike in 2008, U.S. consumers’ credit card bills took priority over mortgage payments and other debts, according to survey data Auriemma Consulting Group released recently. In the consulting firm’s latest edition of Cardbeat, Editor Nancy Stahl contends credit cards rose in consumers’ payment hierarchies because card issuers tightened their underwriting rules while mortgage foreclosures became commonplace, “swaying borrowers toward the conclusion that it’s more important to be current on their credit card than on their mortgage.”

No single market for new business surfaced in a recent survey of independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers. The survey findings, contained in the report from Aite Group LLC “ISOs and Merchant Acquirers: Two Sides of the Same Coin,” suggest ISOs and acquirers have different views on where they might find new card-accepting merchants.

Though as many as 46% of Americans are concerned with identity theft, banks that support efforts such as mobile banking should be cautious in how they communicate the issue to consumers, Susan Menke, behavioral economist at Mintel Comperemedia, tells CardLine in analyzing the results of an online Mintel survey of 2,000 Americans delving into their concerns about identity theft.

VeriFone Holdings Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based point-of-sale terminal maker, says the global recession forced it to trim its sales and marketing expenses by 19.7% this year compared with 2008, according to the company’s fiscal 2009 annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. VeriFone’s fiscal year ends Oct. 31.