Payment cards

It almost seems counterintuitive that a health savings account would be so attractive that it could actually be used as a marketing tool to recruit prospective employees and retain existing ones.

Cardlytics has added Wells Fargo to the list of banks using its card-linked offers platform after a successful pilot, joining JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, the latter of which has leaned on Cardlytics’ marketing service since 2012. Notably, these rivals aren’t demanding exclusivity.

Companies have tried for years to build a market for interactive cards, with little success. Dynamics is taking a different tack by approaching banks to issue the cards, rather than selling directly to consumers.

Business owners are understandably reluctant to allow employees, contractors and freelancers take the company credit card. But asking them to use a personal card raises other issues, such as scanning receipts for reimbursement.

Once these security and convenience issues are addressed in the mind of consumers, we will likely see a faster mainstream adoption of digital payments, according to Matt Tatham, manager of content insights and data analyst at Experian Consumer Services.

Since blockchain technology is based on the core principle of decentralization, it provides an opportunity to break through the multiple middleman fees with an alternative low-fee digital payments network, writes Sarthak Moghe, CEO of TillBilly.

As Amazon Prime Day kicks off, credit unions are looking for ways to entice members to use the CU's card for purchases.

Whatever the reason that Plaid, a prominent data aggregator, can no longer access data from Capital One, the situation demonstrates how fragile fintechs are when they lose banking access.

Entrust Datacard, which serves both sides of the physical and digital payments spectrum, sees the categories' fates as intertwined. The more momentum digital and mobile wallets have, the more opportunity they create for their plastic counterparts.

In the era of digital and mobile payments, many banks and tech companies have strived to completely do away with cash, checks and cards. But quite a few have had to concede that the market isn't quite ready to give up the physical trappings of payments.