Loyalty and rewards

Consumers demand far more flexibility from their card reward programs — and some banks are getting creative about delivering it.

Guardian Credit Union plans to offer its members the Buzz Points merchant-funded debit loyalty program, which emphasizes social media interaction.

For Cyriac Roeding, CEO and co-founder of shopkick, the marriage of virtual and physical shopping has never as close as it is now.

Google Wallet has undergone several major revisions since it launched and while the issues solved with its latest iteration were among its biggest hurdles, it's still too soon to declare a winner in the mobile wallet race.

Citigroup Inc. is expanding its ThankYou Rewards program by providing customers with virtual account numbers linked to their Citi credit cards and rewards accounts to redeem points at online merchants.

While nearly two thirds, or 61%, of U.S. online consumers have heard of a digital wallet, only 11% actually use one, an indicator that wallet providers still face challenges reaching consumers, according to Forrester Research.

The Amazon Coins digital currency is now available for consumers in the U.K. and Germany to buy mobile applications and make in-app purchases on the Kindle Fire tablet and on Amazon.com Inc.'s regional app stores.

JPMorgan Chase heavily markets its Sapphire Preferred card to travelers, but without an EMV chip, the Sapphire card was losing its luster for some users.

TD Bank Group and President’s Choice Financial are launching the Near Field Communication-based Ugo mobile wallet in Canada.

Samsung is broadening its mobile wallet through new partnerships with companies in transportation, coupons and hospitality.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) wants to drastically boost membership in its loyalty program, a move that will necessitate going well beyond its typical geographic and demographic boundaries.

American Express Co. is working with VeriFone Systems to allow consumers to redeem membership rewards to pay for rides in New York City taxis.

VeriFone Systems and National Payment Card Association (NPCA) have launched a payments and rewards product that supports mobile payments at gas stations.

Eataly, an international Italian food seller, will offer cooking lessons, tours, recipes signed by famous Italian chefs, and other perks to MasterCard customers.

MasterCard is working with Parkeon, a parking management company, to enable merchants to deliver offers and loyalty programs to motorists while they are parking their cars.

Synchology's Branded Payments Platform allows merchants to offer prepaid cards with their brands' loyalty and rewards programs.

When Google decided to create an iPhone version of its Google Wallet, it turned to Austin-based Mutual Mobile for help — the same app developer that's quietly working on an overhaul of the Isis mobile wallet.

Payments marketing company edo has launched edo Marketplace, a card-linked offers platform that allows merchants to create their own targeted campaigns.

MCX, a retailer-driven mobile commerce initiative, is being steadily built upon retailers' desire to control their own customer data and possibly lessen the sting of, or bypass totally, card payment interchange fees. But it must still deliver two key things: a brand and a product.

Atlanta, Ga.-based Cardlytics Inc. plans to support location-based card-linked marketing with push notifications in the first quarter of 2014.