Prepaid cards

Before smartphones and digital wallets, a Georgia bank in the '90s partnered with a calling card provider to expand customer relationships and drive noninterest income.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed further changes Thursday to its final rule on prepaid cards and is seeking public comment on whether to delay implementing it a second time.

Fintech is full of payments technology ideas in search of a mission, and Wholesome Wave, whose mission is to improve low-income consumers’ nutrition, has searched for years to find a better way to reimburse its constituents for buying healthy food.

Consumers who use person-to-person payment apps are twice as likely to hold a prepaid card, but the two payment methods are not always interchangeable.

Netspend is focusing on "overlooked and emerging segments" to expand its prepaid card services, according to company president Chuck Harris. And it's making some very unconventional alliances along the way.

Gift card marketplace provider Raise is launching a mobile wallet for gift cards to turn them into somewhat of an alternative currency.

Unlike some other family spending tools in which parents dictate what their children can spend on prepaid cards, Malauzai Software and payment technology provider Vantiv are delivering an application that encourages users to let the child decide what to spend.

Republican leaders acknowledged that they will not be able to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn the CFPB's prepaid card rule.

The Pasadena, Calif., firm also reported growth in the number of active prepaid cards for the first time since the second quarter of 2015. Profits rose by 24%.

When American Express debuted its Bluebird prepaid card in Walmart stores nearly five years ago, it was a sharp detour from the card brand's status as a product for the elite. But rather than bridge these two worlds, the Bluebird card has kept its market walled off.

Walmart adjusted two of its long-standing, in-house offerings this week, saying it was lowering the rates for its domestic Walmart2Walmart money transfer service and adding a digital money transfer service with Bluebird2Walmart.

The North American subsidiary of Germany’s Wirecard AG is providing the technology behind a prepaid Visa card that distributes cash rewards to blood donors.

Two years after launching Bento for Business, a prepaid Mastercard enabling small businesses to manage employee expenses, Bento has announced it’s adopting i2c’s Inc.’s global platform and adding new features.

The fight over a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule adding new restrictions to prepaid cards is intensifying as some Republicans hope to overturn it before a looming deadline expires.

Readers sound off an attempt to block prepaid regulations, threats to consumer privacy, FSOC’s political bent, the proper use for SARs, and more.

Prepaid card users have waited a long time for the basic protections that debit card customers take for granted. Congress should not throw them under the bus.

What's considered a 'bad' product for one group of consumers may not be bad for another.

The prepaid card issuer was accused of deceiving customers in ads claiming that getting approved was easy, and funds would be available right away.

Total System Services' prepaid unit, Netspend, will pay consumers who bought its cards up to $53 million to resolve a Federal Trade Commission suit alleging that the company misled consumers about accessing funds.

Today, less than 10% of all gift cards sold in the U.S. are digital. That could start to change, as the industry's heavy hitters break down the walls between their plastic and digital gift card operations to spur global growth.