Mobile Payments Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Payment Processing News
July 21st, 2014 by Elma Jane

PayPal has begun testing a new loyalty program called PayPal Select that seeks to promote use of the digital-payments network by offering more rewards for its most active members. The program launched by invitation only based on users’ history on PayPal and follows by about 18 months the cancellation PayPal’s previous loyalty program, PayPal Advantage. As PayPal looks to continue to build its volume of use on mobile devices off of eBay, driving repeat use and loyalty will be key. The challenges for the offer part will be the same as any other deal/offer program – namely the quality of the offers and inbox-offer fatigue. Like any big-screen concept that gets downscaled onto mobile, there is the challenge of how to hook people in the first couple of screens. CreditCall is not involved with PayPal Select. The payment platform is a division of San Jose, CA-based online auction giant eBay. It offers both a mobile app and an m-dot site for mobile payments.

Posted in Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 10th, 2014 by Elma Jane

David Marcus, president of eBay Inc.’s PayPal division, plans to leave the payments company to join Facebook Inc. The move is effective June 27. Marcus will oversee the social network’s messaging products division, including the Facebook Messenger app, which lets users send messages to their friends. Marcus had been in his position at PayPal since April 2012. Prior to working for eBay, he was founder and CEO of Zong, a mobile payments provider for gaming and social networking companies that eBay acquired in August 2011. As the head of PayPal, David helped make a great business better, reinvigorating product design and innovation and energizing the team to deliver compelling consumer experiences. Making the move was a difficult decision, Marcus writes in a Facebook post. After much deliberation, I decided now is the right time for me to move on to something that is closer to what I love to do every day. Facebook says it processes 12 billion messages daily and its Messenger smartphone app which consumers can use independently of Facebook even though it is integrated with the social network has more than 200 million users. We’re excited by the potential to continue developing great new messaging experiences that better serve the Facebook community and reach even more people and David will be leading these efforts. Marcus will oversee the social network’s messaging products division, which includes Facebook’s Messenger app. The mobile app has more than 200 million users.

 

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June 3rd, 2014 by Elma Jane

Apple announced new Touch ID API better known among the masses as fingerprint ID, which will allow app developers to use fingerprint authentication for mobile payments and other applications.

This means that in addition to protecting the mobile device itself, the technology can now be used also to secure individual applications on the device against unauthorized use. Customers could potentially use prints from different fingers to control different apps. For instance, right thumbprint for access to the device, left index finger for access to the mobile bank app within the device.

The new feature for third party software developers provides a logical progression for the removal of password protection across a range of applications, including payments.

Financial services providers who offer the convenience of a mobile application for their customers can now also offer said customers an additional layer of security for the information that application holds.

Posted in Credit Card Security, Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 21st, 2014 by Elma Jane

Mobile credit card processing is way cheaper than traditional point-of-sale (POS) systems. Accepting credit cards using mobile devices is stressful, not to mention a hassle to set up  and customers would never dare compromise security by saving or swiping their credit cards on a mobile device. Some of the many myths surrounding mobile payments, which allow merchants to process credit card payments using smartphones and tablets. Merchants process payments using a physical credit card reader attached to a mobile device or by scanning previously stored credit card information from a mobile app, as is the case with mobile wallets. Benefits include convenience, a streamlined POS system and access to a breadth of business opportunities based on collected consumer data. Nevertheless, mobile payments as a whole remains a hotly debated topic among retailers, customers and industry experts alike.

Although mobile payment adoption has been slow, consumers are steadily shifting their preferences as an increasing number of merchants implement mobile payment technologies (made easier and more accessible by major mobile payment players such as Square and PayPal). To stay competitive, it’s more important than ever for small businesses to stay current and understand where mobile payment technology is heading.

If you’re considering adopting mobile payments or are simply curious about the technology, here are mobile payment myths that you may have heard, but are completely untrue. 

All rates are conveniently the same. Thanks to the marketing of big players like Square and PayPal – which are not actually credit card processors, but aggregators rates can vary widely and significantly. For instance, consider that the average debit rate is 1.35 percent. Square’s is 2.75 percent and PayPal Here’s is 2.7 percent, so customers will have to pay an additional 1.41 percent and 1.35 percent, respectively, using these two services. Some cards also get charged well over 4 percent, such as foreign rewards cards. These companies profit & mobile customers lose. Always read the fine print.

Credit card information is stored on my mobile device after a transaction. Good mobile developers do not store any critical information on the device. That information should only be transferred through an encrypted, secure handshake between the application and the processor. No information should be stored or left hanging around following the transaction.

I already have a POS system – the hassle isn’t worth it. Mobile payments offer more flexibility to reach the customer than ever before. No longer are sales people tied to a cash register and counters to finish the sale. That flexibility can mean the difference between revenue and a lost sale. Mobile payments also have the latest technology to track sales, log revenue, fight chargebacks, and analyze performance quickly and easily.

If we build it, they will come. Many wallet providers believe that if you simply build a new mobile payment method into the phones, consumers will adopt it as their new wallet.   This includes proponents of NFC technology, QR codes, Bluetooth and other technologies, but given very few merchants have the POS systems to accept these new types of technologies, consumers have not adopted. Currently, only 6.6 percent of merchants can accept NFC, and even less for QR codes or BLE technology, hence the extremely slow adoption rate.  Simply put, the new solutions are NOT convenient, and do not replace consumers’ existing wallets, not even close.

It raises the risk of fraud. Fraud’s always a concern. However, since data isn’t stored on the device for Square and others, the data is stored on their servers, the risk is lessened. For example, there’s no need for you to fear one of your employees walking out with your tablet and downloading all of your customers’ info from the tablet. There’s also no heightened fraud risk for data loss if a tablet or mobile device is ever sold.

Mobile processing apps are error-free. Data corruption glitches do happen on wireless mobile devices. A merchant using mobile credit card processing apps needs to be more diligent to review their mobile processing transactions. Mobile technology is fantastic when it works.

Mobile wallets are about to happen. They aren’t about to happen, especially in developed markets like the U.S. It took 60 years to put in the banking infrastructure we have today and it will take years for mobile wallets to achieve critical mass here.

Setup is difficult and complicated. Setting up usually just involves downloading the vendor’s app and following the necessary steps to get the hardware and software up and running. The beauty of modern payment solutions is that like most mobile apps, they are built to be user-friendly and intuitive so merchants would have little trouble setting them up. Most mobile payment providers offer customer support as well, so you can always give them a call in the unlikely event that you have trouble setting up the system.

The biggest business opportunity in the mobile payments space is in developed markets. While most investments and activity in the Mobile Point of Sale space take place today in developed markets (North America and Western Europe), the largest opportunity is actually in emerging markets where most merchants are informal and by definition can’t get a merchant account to accept card payments. Credit and debit card penetration is higher in developed markets, but informal merchants account for the majority of payments volume in emerging markets and all those transactions are conducted in cash today.

Wireless devices are unreliable. Reliability is very often brought up as I think many businesses are wary of fully wireless setups. I think this is partly justified, but very easily mitigated, for example with a separate Wi-Fi network solely for point of sale and payments. With the right device, network equipment, software and card processor, reliability shouldn’t be an issue.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

April 15th, 2014 by Elma Jane

Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Cardis has been piloting its technology in Europe with Raiffeisen Bank in Austria and Sberbank in Russia. They are now focused on the U.S., as this is the fastest growing mobile payments market in the world, where there’s a huge opportunity. Integration of technology with a large U.S. processor and with a major U.S. retail brand, which will be launching a mobile site and mobile app using Cardis solution.

Cardis International is planning an April launch in the U.S. for its technology, which enables merchants to accept low-value contactless or mobile payments without incurring high processing charges. Cardis is able to bring down the processing cost of low-value payments, the company said, by aggregating multiple transactions into a single payment.

The problem

Contactless card and NFC-based mobile payments are typically for low amounts, and yet still use a card processing infrastructure that was designed 40 years ago when the average credit card transaction was $100.

Traditional card processing systems require each transaction to be individually processed through the payment system, including authorization, clearing and settlement. The resulting variable costs of processing each transaction are independent of the transaction amount and too high for low-value payments, particularly in low-margin industries such as quick-service restaurants. QSR restaurants often have a 3 percent profit margin, yet, for low-value contactless payments, the processing cost could be as high as 6-7 percent of the transaction value.

Mobile and contactless cards offer consumers a convenient form factor. But they don’t solve the problem that low-value card payments are very expensive for merchants.

As an ever-increasing percentage of transactions have become cashless, card processing fees have become a significant cost. Costs that are based on the number of transactions, rather than their value. With average per person expenditures of $5 or under, feels each swipe fee much more than a business where customers spend $50 or more. But not accepting credit/debit cards for low-value transactions isn’t an option as many of customers don’t carry cash anymore.

Aggregation

Cardis’ solution is to act as an aggregator of low-value payments, sending a single batched transaction through to a processor instead of multiple low-value transactions. As there is no per transaction processing of individual low-value purchases, the cost-per-transaction is significantly reduced.

Cardis provides its technology as a software plug-in to payment service providers for contact-based and contactless card payments, mobile wallet transactions and NFC payments.

There are two models. For card payments, it will aggregate multiple purchases by an individual cardholder at a single merchant on a post-paid basis up to a specific amount, for example $20. To guarantee payment to the merchant, since the aggregated transaction is processed at a later date, it will pre-authorize an amount, for example $15, the first time the customer makes a purchase at that merchant.

Alternatively, merchants can opt for Cardis’ prepaid system. This involves the consumer setting up a prepaid account hosted by Cardis’ sponsoring bank that is topped up via ACH (automated clearing house) transfers. Using the Cardis prepaid account on a smartphone provides the digital equivalent to cash.

With its post-paid solution, merchants will save 30-50 percent per transaction compared to conventional card processing fees, while its prepaid solution saves merchants 80 percent per transaction. With the post-paid solution, it will only aggregate a customer’s purchases at a single specific merchant. But, as the prepaid solution aggregates the customer’s purchases across multiple merchants, this enables to offer a much lower processing fee to the merchant.

Cardis provides an audit trail enabling consumers to track individual transactions that are aggregated using its technology. Consumers don’t lose any of their card protection rights and guarantees by agreeing to let a merchant aggregate their payments through Cardis. They can always charge back any disputed transactions.

Cardis sees opportunities for digital content providers such as online music stores and games providers to use its aggregation technology. It can integrate solution with existing digital wallets.

Raiffeisen

In 2012, Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank launched a pilot of Cardis technology for NFC-based Visa V Pay debit card payments in partnership with Visa Europe. Raiffeisen’s MobileCard mobile payment product uses a secure element stored on an NFC-enabled MicroSD card inserted in a mobile phone. Although Cardis supports secure elements stored on SIM cards as well as on MicroSD cards and on the cloud, Raiffeisen opted for MicroSD cards, as this is an easier solution to implement.

Raiffeisen cardholders participating in the pilot use MobileCard on average three times a week, with an average transaction value of ($5.70). Merchants accepting MobileCard are seeing 40 percent to 70 percent lower merchant processing fees for an average transaction value of  ($5.43) to ($13.60).

Spindle

In October 2013, Spindle, a U.S. mobile commerce company, signed an agreement with Multi-max, a manufacturer of vending machines for mid-size and small offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Spindle will integrate its MeNetwork mobile commerce technology into Multi-max’s line of K-Cup vending machines for rollout across the U.S.

The MeNetwork solution will incorporate all card-based payment acceptance services, as well as mobile marketing services. Spindle’s partner Cardis will provide low-value payment processing services for purchases at K-Cup vending machines.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Smartphone, smartSD Cards, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 3rd, 2014 by Elma Jane

Interchange is a word that’s talked about a lot in the payments industry. If you didn’t have to pay interchange fees, what would your business spend the money on? At its most basic, interchange is the fees businesses pay to credit card processors to swipe your credit and get paid – or the cost of moving money. Businesses are sick and tired of paying high fees and getting very little in return. Customers are sick and tired of seeing prices of items tick upwards as businesses are forced to charge more to cover the cost of interchange.

Businesses spend an exorbitant amount of money each year to accept credit cards – to the tune of $50B. Businesses could reinvest the money they’ve been spending on interchange to better connect with customers, enhance marketing initiatives and grow faster and smarter. Just imagine for a second the economic stimulus the country would get if all that money was put back into the business to drive growth, or back into the pockets of customers to lower costs.

In the past 30 years, interchange fees have mainly gone in only one direction: up. Luckily, things are starting to change, and I think we’re going to start seeing interchange being driven down. The days of a 3 -or 4-percent interchange rate are beginning to look numbered and here’s why:

Competition

There are nearly 200 players in the mobile payments space, with more entering daily. New opportunities are providing businesses with alternative payment options that are outside of Mastercard and Visa’s clutches. While there might be 1,000-plus credit card processing companies, they’re all based on the Mastercard/Visa rails, which provides a fixed floor. But not so with many of these new payment options. As such, traditional methods of payment (cash, credit cards) are facing an increasing amount of competition, and merchants are starting to pay attention.

It’s unlikely that cash and credit cards are going away anytime soon, but it only takes a small shift in volume (maybe 5 percent) for the card issuers to start paying attention. There are a number of ways for them to react, but if history is any guide, one of them will be to start lowering their prices. Alternatively, they could find ways to offer more value to their merchants. Either way, competition is offering merchants new ways to accept payments, and this will lower fees over time.

Innovation

The second thing driving down costs for merchants is rapid innovation, and like a good deal of innovation these days, much of it is centered around mobile. Mobile payments are starting to gain significant traction among consumers, accounting for $640M in 2012 and expected to have grown by an additional 234 percent in 2013.

QR codes, NFC, peer-to-peer payments, card emulation –  the list of new technologies trying to disrupt the payments space goes on and on. These new alternatives are challenging the current payments system and shedding light on the opportunities for businesses. This innovation is beneficial in two ways. The first, as discussed above is that more competition will naturally drive costs down. The second is that alternative payment options are focusing on value beyond the transaction.

There are new payment options out there that provide tangible information, such as data analytics, which help companies drive sales and increase revenues. New options are allowing small businesses access to the same technology and analytics that were previously reserved for big-box retailers or e-commerce sites only. These additional value propositions not only help businesses, they also provide new ways for payments companies to monetize, removing the need for them to make all of their money from interchange. With two (or more) revenue lines, lowering interchange is suddenly a lot more feasible.

Legislation

The Durbin Amendment is designed to introduce competition in the debit card processing network and limit fees for businesses. For all of its unintended consequences, Durbin legislation is actually helping to drive down interchange; it’s opening up competition for non-card-brand network players and lowering debit card fees. While it is certainly rife with controversy, this amendment is opening up new ways to move money that will, over time, contribute to a less expensive payment processing ecosystem.

Merchant demand

Business owners are smart and savvy. They pay attention to trends, focusing on finding new ways to set their business apart. Business owners are also conscious of ROI, and how much they’re spending to attract and retain customers. They understand there is some cost to accept payments, but are becoming more and more frustrated at the high swipe fee costs from traditional credit card processors and minimal return for those fees.

Businesses are looking to new, innovative solutions to provide more than just payment processing –  they want to understand and better connect with their customers. In short, merchants are ready for a new payments ecosystem, and where there’s this much demand from a group this big and influential, a solution can’t stay away for too long.

Interchange rates are not going away entirely in the near future, although it will happen eventually. A lot of powerful wheels are in motion to significantly reduce the interchange rates that merchants currently pay. Right now the impact might be small, but it’s growing quickly. In a few years, 3- to 4-percent interchange could be relegated to the same bit of history as $1.99 international phone calls.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Financial Services, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Internet Payment Gateway, Small Business Improvement Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 23rd, 2014 by Elma Jane

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) will now offer the embedded payments service to customers that use the Samsung Galaxy S4 and have CBA’s mobile banking app. MasterCard  indicated that this development allows these customers to make payments at more than 1.6 million PayPass-enabled merchant locations around the globe.

MasterCard is just one major issuer that views embedded chips in NFC-enabled phones as the key to unlocking mobile payments globally. But, its news yesterday of how it is going to leverage its Samsung partnership puts a bit of a different spin on digital wallets and mobile payments.

“Our focus is on helping consumers shop and pay in a way that best fits their needs, across all of their devices,” Mung Ki Woo, group executive of mobile and industry alliances at MasterCard, said in a December 11 statement.

The move is part of MasterCard’s continued relationship with Samsung. Earlier this year, MasterCard  teamed with the handset maker to offer exclusive deals and special discounts to Samsung Galaxy S4 users in Bangladesh.

Posted in Electronic Payments, Financial Services, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Smartphone, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 13th, 2014 by Elma Jane

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group plans to use voice biometrics for authorizing large-value transfers to external bank accounts via its mobile banking service.

The Australian newspaper said ANZ is still piloting the voice biometrics feature, which would enable its mobile banking customers to make payments of more than A$1,000 ($910 U.S.)… The current limit for external transfers to clients of other banks using its smartphone app. Customers would authorize a higher-value payment by speaking into their smartphones, and ANZ’s IT system would compare their voices to digital voiceprints stored on its server.

The voice biometrics system will likely be launched within the next 12 to 18 months, Phil Chronican, the chief executive of ANZ’s Australia operation, said during a Sydney press conference last week.

Chronican added that ANZ also plans to use voice biometrics for authenticating transactions initiated at its call centers.

ANZ will launch the revamped mobile apps that it has been developing as part of the “Banking on Australia” initiative in the first quarter of 2014.

ANZ’s three-year old GoMoney mobile banking app and its more recent FastPay small business mobile payments service will both be re-released with new navigation and personalization options, iTNews said.

 

Posted in Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 26th, 2013 by Elma Jane

Convergence of mobile banking, ATM channels is a given

 AurigaDieboldNCR and Wincor Nixdorf International have all demonstrated their mobile phone-based cardless cash withdrawal solutions. It is interesting to note that all of these vendors have embraced the QR code technology…a clear endorsement for a technology that is secure, low-cost, and readily available.

It doesn’t take a deep examination to realize that the mobile banking and ATM channels are heading toward convergence,  and when the fusion of these dominant channels occurs, the consumer should be at the heart of it.

Auriga has advanced this idea by combining cardless ATM withdrawals with its mobile payments solution. The company has also added an option to make payments using a bank account rather than a card to support those consumers who do not embrace, or do not qualify for, traditional bank cards.

Not surprisingly, many large retailers are watching these developments with keen interest, ever mindful of the significant interchange fees they pay for accepting card based payments.

Although cardless ATM withdrawals and mobile payments are exciting, they are only the start of a deeper, multi-channel convergence. The real channel convergence is not happening at the endpoint devices, it is happening internally within the banks and processors, where modern, flexible technologies are being increasingly deployed to augment or replace yesterday’s legacy infrastructure.

The abilities to centralize business services to save costs, to easily deploy services over any channel for greater consumer choice and to achieve faster times to market for new services are no longer “nice to have” luxuries — they are now “must have” attributes to stay in the game.

It is little wonder that leading banks are shifting their IT investments away from solutions that perpetuate a fragmented services approach in favor of true multichannel systems that facilitate the ultimate consumer experience.

“Channel convergence does not mean that the ATM or the mobile device is at the center, it means the consumer is at the center.”

Once the consumer is placed at the center of your self-service strategy, you quickly realize it is their needs and preferences that should rightfully guide your approach.

The real secret is to allow consumers to interact with their bank the way they want to…with as few restrictions as possible. There is no magic silver bullet that will suit every consumer’s needs.

Banks can create deeper and more enduring relationships with their customers by implementing personalization profiles that allow consumers to tailor their own service experience.

MySpend solution is an excellent illustration of how banks and consumers can better cooperate to combat fraud, consumers can define their own use rules to significantly improve the accuracy of any fraud detection system. For example, card transactions from specific countries can be readily declined if a consumer knows that he or she will not be there, it also provides consumers with an instant notification of their transactions and the means for them to immediately flag any transaction they did not perform.

The use of consumer-specific profiles can be easily extended beyond the anti-fraud focus of MySpend solution. For example, Auriga’s Internet banking solution allows consumers to choose their own login security options from the bank-approved list, including an option for phone-based authentication using QR codes. More broadly, consumer-configured use profiles can improve the entire consumer experience, regardless of the chosen service channel.

Auriga’s ATM solution includes an intelligent menu that automatically tracks the consumer’s transactions and presents the most frequently used transactions on conveniently accessed menu buttons.

“The technology already exists to allow (consumers) to customize their own ATM menu through their mobile or Internet banking channel.” “It is only a matter of time to see the widespread adoption of this advanced customer-centric convenience.”

Ultimately, the business challenges are not about technology; they are about learning how to use the technology to promote growth and identify new competitive advantages. A recent ATM Marketplace report said that “the bank of the future will be a multichannel, multifunction and multi-device environment.” Given the current evidence, it seems this is a sentiment everyone can agree with.

Posted in Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 15th, 2013 by Admin

At the heart of mobile payments is persona. In a cash based humanity, persona isn’t a very big anxiety as everyone’s money is the same. But if you are going to be swiping, scanning, or only signalling to the Starbucks barrista as she agrees your picture to your face, your persona is the critical enabler to making the entire design work.

So it might be a good idea to gaze at the concept of persona a little more nearly. Identity habitually arises as a part of a structure intended to permit the identifier some kind of rights and privileges while defending the interests of the identifying party. The outcome of this need is some kind of identification, which could be a borrowing card, passport or driver’s license, or a myriad of alike things. Read more of this article »

Posted in Mobile Payments Tagged with: , , , , ,