Payments

If consumers embrace a system in which they pay for coffee at Starbucks with their smartphones, will they do the same for Whoppers at Burger King?

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As a sponsor of the Arena Football League’s Jacksonville Sharks, 121 Financial CU has introduced the official “Sharks” Visa credit card.

NEWARK, Del. – Student loan giant Sallie Mae said its Upromise unit has introduced a rewards MasterCard through Barclay’s.

BETHPAGE, N. Y. – Bethpage FCU on Tuesday said personal information from 86,000 of its members’ VISA debit card accounts had been accidentally exposed on the Internet by an employee.

As more and more consumers use their smartphones for point-of-sale purchases, CUs are being urged to "think beyond the swipe."

Subprime credit card borrowers are on the move again, opening significantly more new accounts than they did during the recession as lenders ease up on their ultra-tight underwriting standards.

LATHRUP VILLAGE, Mich.-A unique rewards credit card is helping to boost this state's economy and Michigan First CU's card program-increasing balances and skyrocketing new credit card apps.

How long can a good thing last? Write-offs of credit card loans already have plunged below levels issuers consider sustainable. Continued improvement in delinquencies points to a further dip in loss rates in the months ahead.

Thieves know: there's money in credit cards.

The prominent daily-deals provider Groupon is reportedly branching into payments with a device that competes with Square Inc.

Elavon, a unit of U.S. Bancorp, is taking a different approach to mobile card acceptance by using a wireless card reader that is as big as the phone it pairs with.

Consumers are being more cautious in their use of credit cards — accounts are growing, and overall their balances are down 28% from their peak in January 2009, according to a report from Equifax.

Two credit unions announced separate deals last week to repurchase card portfolios from Bank of America.

Accepting payments on the go is taxing enough without having to worry about the government's cut. To address this pain point, Intuit added a geolocation feature to its GoPayment mobile card reader to determine where a payment is being accepted and apply the appropriate tax rate.

Payments innovations frequently seem to come about from situations where people worry they might not have enough cash on hand for a tip. Years ago, taxis added card readers in part to address this issue, and today, parking valets are experimenting with something similar.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – One lucky member of Altura CU won a trip to Hawaii as part of the credit union’s Visa Debit Card sweepstakes.

Mobile payment development may be held back by the unnecessary confusion surrounding mobile wallet security and standards, according to a top MasterCard executive.

Target has once again proven to be a breeding ground for payment innovation. The retail giant, which gave an early boost to the Starbucks mobile payment app and the American Express low-fee prepaid card, has given shopkick the go-ahead for a nationwide rollout of the vendor's mobile rewards system at its stores.

U.S. Bancorp is using technology from Fiserv to offer an iPad banking app with a heavy focus on payments.

U.S. credit card charge-offs ticked up in April, but Moody's Investors Service experts say it is merely an aberration in the general downward trend.