Loyalty and rewards

Harland Clarke's acquisition of RetailMeNot provides a broader range of marketing technology to serve merchants that are looking to improve mobile-driven sales against competitors such as Shopkick and Foursquare.

Payment and marketing company Harland Clarke Holdings has agreed to buy the popular online coupon site RetailMeNot for an equity value of $630 million, a deal that would add digital discount technology to Harland's existing merchant services.

Transit systems provide a clear use case for mobile payments, allowing commuters to avoid lining up at ticketing machines when they're already in a rush to get to their destination. But many of the perks of mobile wallets, such as targeted offers, don't apply to them.

Ingenico ePayments is giving merchants a new way to engage consumers at the checkout by offering a choice of games enabling participants to win merchandise instead of having to pay for it.

A new generation of Internet-connected vending machines could make digging for spare change and fiddling with uncooperative dollar bills a thing of the past. At a growing number of locations, customers can now pay by credit card and mobile wallet.

Consumers are increasingly positive about loyalty programs, mobile ads, chatbots and making a purchase from a smartphone, despite an early resistance to changing their payment habits when mobile wallets debuted years ago.

U.S. restaurants' EMV migration has lagged behind other retail categories for several reasons, including the hassles of replacing centralized payment systems with pay-at-the-table routines that chip cards often require. But another reason: Restaurateurs have other priorities.

Financial technology provider Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) has entered an agreement that will help create the "ballpark of the future" with Minor League Baseball.

The Plenti loyalty program unfolded two years ago with a new twist on plastic card-based rewards—a multi-merchant coalition in which participants were given exclusivity within their market and consumers could earn points at one retailer and redeem them at another.

Underbanked consumers will have an incentive to initiate mobile payments through PaySwag, an application that will issue rewards for using a smartphone to make a payment and allowing redemption at any time.

A new cap on credit-card transaction fees that comes into force on July 1 means there’ll be less revenue available to fund lavish award programs.

Chase Pay is the result of years of investment in ChaseNet, a closed-loop system that allows JPMorgan Chase to cut costs in a way few other banks could. So what value — if any — does Chase get from buying the discarded remains of the MCX merchants' mobile wallet?

The steady march of smartphone technology makes mobile wallet adoption seem inevitable, but consumers still need convincing.

American Express Co. is looking to weed out customers who jump from credit card to credit card just for the sign-on bonus.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.

American Express Co. is escalating the rewards war for premium credit cards, offering Platinum customers $200 of free Uber rides while raising the annual fee.

Lost in the battle between banks and retailers — which is being fought with renewed vigor in the early days of the Trump administration — is any consideration of how caps on interchange fees have affected consumer spending patterns.

Mastercard is adding a new perk for elite customers by extending free airport and in-flight WiFi around the world for customers with certain cards targeting high-end global travelers.

The cards could prove to be popular with Americans who travel frequently to Asia.

While cash back remains a popular reward, consumers would like to see a rewards card in which they would have a choice to establish a program they consider most relevant.