OCEANSIDE, Calif.-Members at Pacific Marine CU here were sometimes locked out of their accounts for weeks if they forgot their account information.

Credit unions interviewed for this story say the number of chat sessions is about 3% of the telephone calls they get from members. Yet CIOs say they swear by chat.

AUSTIN, Texas – Online banking solution provider Jwaala and payments solution provider eWise said they have partnered to offer a new online payment alternative for CU members, merchants and billers.

NEW YORK – Citi has rolled out a collaboration with Best Buy which it says is the first mobile rewards app.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Pentagon FCU employees nationwide are waving their phone to pay for things at the cashier stand-part of the VISA Digital Wallet pilot for NFC contactless payments, according to Ben Scandlen, VP-marketing at the $15-billion CU.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.-The greatest risk with live Web chat is not knowing who's on the other end of the conversation, said several credit unions.

Rising interest in the emergence of mobile-payment technologies for smartphones appears to be spurring a gold-rush mentality among would-be developers looking to produce the next hit mobile-payment application.

The U.S. credit card charge-off rate rose slightly in July, but delinquencies fell again to an all-time low as consumers continued to demonstrate discipline in making on-time payments, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report released Aug. 19.

Credit card charge-offs have been plunging since the middle of last year, moving against the tide of an anemic jobs environment but supported by slowing bankruptcies.

Citigroup Inc. has launched a mobile-rewards application with Best Buy Co. Inc. that enables its cardholders to redeem ThankYou rewards, Citi announced Aug. 18.

Paying for a farmer’s fruits or vegetables with a wooden token might seem like a throwback to Colonial America, but it works for lower-income individuals or families eligible for government food-subsidy programs–and for farmers setting up summer markets.

During a downturn, consumers are much more likely to use–and to repay–general-purpose credit cards than retail cards, and pretty much every major retail issuer tried to bail out of the business at some point over the last few years.

It made headlines in Europe, but this week’s announcement that three major telecommunication companies in Germany have joined forces to bypass supporting banks in handling Mpass mobile-payment transactions is a concept not likely to quickly take hold in other countries, one industry observer says.

Eager to exploit new growth opportunities in a sluggish economy, certain payments-industry technology suppliers already are positioning themselves to capitalize on opportunities Visa Inc.’s U.S. EMV chip card initiative may trigger as participants upgrade systems and equipment, observers say.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office reported Tuesday that an agreement is in place with a finance company to clear $3.5 million in debt for nearly one thousand soldiers.

A Texas resident filed a lawsuit against Lockhart, Morris & Montgomery Inc., a Texas-based collection agency, after he received several automated voicemail messages from an employee that did not disclose the messages were an attempt to collect a debt.

VantageScore Solutions LLC, a joint venture of the three credit rating agencies, has prevailed against Fair Isaac Corp. in a lawsuit that alleged antitrust, trademark infringement and false advertising.

RICHMOND, Va. – IMN said Call Federal Credit Union in Richmond, Va., has deployed its Member Adviser e-newsletter program.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Google’s Monday announcement that is plans to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings is expected to lead to a surge in its mobile payment plans, and to have fallout for the broader issue of adoption of mobile payments.

After marching downward for more than a year, the average charge-off rate for U.S. consumer credit cards may show an increase for July because two issuers have reported one-time spikes in card-account defaults, a Moody’s Investors Service analyst tells PaymentsSource.