Loyalty and rewards

Uber is expanding its rewards to cover more U.S. cities, yet the program continues to stay complicated and stingy — consumers may need to spend up to $500 on eligible rides and Eats purchases just to get a $5 Uber Cash reward.

Starbucks is being pressured to add an in-app option for deliveries rather than redirect customers to Uber's app.

Discover leaned heavily on rewards to drive new card acquisitions and sales growth in the fourth quarter, but suffered a double whammy of rising reward costs and higher charge-offs, causing it to miss analyst earnings expectations.

A 2017 agreement with Marriott International that kept the hotel chain's card portfolio with American Express and JPMorgan Chase will take a brand marketing turn in February, but leave both issuers as partners.

American Express’ ambitious multi-merchant rewards program, Plenti, failed last year, but it wasn’t a total loss. FIS took several lessons from Plenti that it’s applying to its own evolving payment card rewards program.

The news may seem overdue, but this isn't a story of two Goliaths battling it out. It's a tale of one Goliath beating multiple Davids — slowly, methodically, and one at a time.

Square's new card for business owners does something very bold with debit — and very troubling for banks.

India’s ICICI Bank is rolling out a loyalty program for consumers who regularly send remittances to India via the bank’s Money2India online platform and app.

Dynamics has launched an interactive credit card with India's IndusInd Bank that allows consumers to choose between three different funding sources when making purchases: credit, points and installment payments.

Banks and payment companies are already comfortable using artificial intelligence to guard against fraud. The tech could soon be just as welcome in creating payment products and matching them to potential customers.

Citi wants to attract credit card customers who use its card for staples such as groceries and gas — a pivot from its past of marketing to the social butterflies who would use its cards on dining and entertainment.

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.

FIS is collaborating with loyalty marketing firm Excentus to extend FIS’s consumer loyalty program to 13,400 U.S. Shell fuel stations.

Neither Amazon nor Starbucks could be described as a traditional retailer. But they both use their shared headquarters city as a playground for developing digital and in-store innovations that all merchants and payment companies will have to respond to the years ahead.

The video game industry serves a decidedly digital, tech-savvy audience with a propensity toward digital payments, but has been plagued by inconsistencies in payments to developers and a lack of a consistent rewards program for loyal players.

Mobile payments technology has fallen short of expectations in major markets, particularly the U.S., where less than 10 percent of consumers routinely use devices to pay in stores — despite more than four years of aggressive development from large technology companies and banks.

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.

Today’s customers demand seamless experiences. They want simple loyalty solutions without the clutter of tracking their rewards and coupons, according to Francis Hondal, president of loyalty and managed services at Mastercard.

Premium loyalty is about brands and customers committing to each other from the start. It’s about brands aligning with their customers and giving upfront, according to Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce.