Loyalty and rewards

Annual fees for Platinum cards for consumers and small businesses will increase to $250 from $195, while Reserve cards go up by $100 to $550. Gold cards will rise slightly from $95 to $99.

When the payments industry's decision makers gathered in Los Angeles at SourceMedia's annual PayThink conference, certain topics dominated the discussion.

The launch of the products comes more than a year after Capital One wrested the Walmart partnership from Synchrony Financial.

In a sign of how much Walmart Inc. is betting on e-commerce, the retailer’s revamped credit-card program with Capital One Financial Corp. offers better rewards for online shopping and checking out with its mobile app.

Retailers have raised the bar in how they attract customers through rewards and loyalty programs, but not all are well-versed in how their technology also lures fraudsters.

Apple keeps sweetening the deal for prospective Apple Card users, with Walgreens the latest to offer cash-back rewards.

Its newest offering is called Delivery Unlimited, which at $98 a year undercuts Amazon Prime's $119 fee.

Mobile order, delivery and payment apps are proliferating at restaurants, but they're also becoming less distinguishable, posing an entirely new challenge as deep discounts become the weapon of choice.

It took a few years for mobile wallets to get past the aura of just a "cool technology" looking for a problem to solve, but Google Pay and its peers are clearly finding their niche as a way to embed payments with customer engagement tools.

Mastercard Inc.’s European unit formally notified Belgian and German data-protection regulators of a data lapse concerning a loyalty program, officials said on Friday.

A J.D. Power official says supplemental benefits — many centered on travel cards — need to be pared down. His comments followed the company’s release of survey data that showed these hard-to-understand benefits were a drag on customer satisfaction.

Apple is expanding the list of merchants where Apple Card users may earn 3% cash back, starting with Uber.

In the age of e-commerce and the "Pays," redemptions will no longer be viewed primarily as an expense to be managed, but rather as a tool to create value through higher spending, brand engagement, and long-term loyalty, says Capco's Daniela Hawkins.

Apple Inc. and Barclays Plc have dropped the rewards program from their longtime credit-card partnership in advance of the debut this month of a new Apple Card with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Amex's multi-merchant rewards coalition, Plenti, may have failed, but ExxonMobil never gave up on the program's potential.

Starbucks is looking to reclaim its role as the global leader in streamlined, intuitive order-and-pay systems through machine learning technology it’s developing in-house and through a deal with restaurant-tech startup Brightloom, its new equity investment partner.

When Amazon was busy driving traffic to its site — and the likes of Walmart and Best Buy were aggressively trying to pull shoppers away — it also invited several issuers to compete to be the top-of-wallet card for Prime Day spending.

Even with an economy that has slowed to a "moderate" pace, American Express says U.S. consumers' spending trends remained solid and, in the case of Amex cardholders, they are willing to pay fees for cards that come with the right features.

The annual summer shopping bonanza will run across two days for the first time, and other retailers are following suit with offers of their own. Here’s how credit unions can capitalize on it.

The Prime Day event is also a chance for Amazon to showcase a new range of devices and payment options — but in 2019, Amazon is making some key changes to how it asks its audience to shop.