Credit Card Gist

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are teaming up to compete with credit card companies by allowing customers to pay for products with their smartphones.

The mobile carriers plan to use Discover, the fourth-biggest credit card processing network, and British bank Barclays to process the transactions.

The service will first be tested in Atlanta and three other U.S. cities.

(Via YouTube.com)

Learn how to minimize chargebacks and fraud

Learn how to minimize chargebacks and reduce your processing costs. The Chargeback Management kit contains a video and an e-book:

• E-Book – Chargeback Manual (40 pages).
• Video – Card Acceptance Best Practices for Lowest Processing Costs (18 min).

Your cell phone bill and credit card bill may soon be one and the same. AT&T and Verizon Wireless are said to be planning a venture to replace credit cards with smart phones, taking aim at Visa and MasterCard.

Bloomberg News has reported that they will test the technology at stores in Atlanta and three other cities. It would work like Visa’s contactless technology, allowing customers to pay by simply waving their phones.

(Via ABCNews.go.com)

Learn how to lower your card acceptance cost

Learn how to accept credit and debit cards at the lowest processing costs. The Payment Card Acceptance kit contains a video and an e-book:

• Video – Card Acceptance Best Practices for Lowest Processing Costs (18 min).
• E-Book – Payment Card Acceptance Guide (19 pages).

AT&T and Verizon, the U.S. biggest mobile carriers, are teaming up with Discover Financial and Barclays Bank to enable consumers to use their phones to make credit and debit card payments and take on industry giants Visa and MasterCard, according to a report by Business Week.

The partners, which also includes Deutsche Telekom AG unit T-Mobile USA, will be offering a contactless service that allows users to pay by waving their phones by a specially equipped device at a store’s checkout. Similar services are already available in Japan, Turkey and the U.K.

The venture will be using Discover’s payment network to process the payments, while Barclays will be managing the accounts. Discover is currently the fourth-biggest U.S. payment network, behind Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

These developments are coming in the wake of Congress passing a law requiring the Federal Reserve to ensure that fees Visa and MasterCard issuers charge merchants for accepting card payments, are “reasonable and proportional” (read lower). Now the U.S. Department of Justice is considering suing Visa for banning merchants from charging customers who use credit cards instead of cash.

The pressure is clearly being felt. “If we change our rules in these areas, this could cause a material, adverse effect on our business,” Visa said today in a regulatory filing.

(Via YouTube.com)

Learn how to minimize chargebacks and fraud

Learn how to minimize chargebacks and reduce your processing costs. The Chargeback Management kit contains a video and an e-book:

• E-Book – Chargeback Manual (40 pages).
• Video – Card Acceptance Best Practices for Lowest Processing Costs (18 min).

A new service, called blinging, allows you to pay without cash, debit or credit cards. Blinging works by placing a small microchip sticker called a Bling Tag on the back of the cell phone. You pay your bill by tapping your phone against the hand held Blinger in the restaurant. The machine sends a signal to your bank and money is transferred from your checking account to the business.

(Via NewsChannel5.com)

Learn how to lower your card acceptance cost

Learn how to accept credit and debit cards at the lowest processing costs. The Payment Card Acceptance kit contains a video and an e-book:

• Video – Card Acceptance Best Practices for Lowest Processing Costs (18 min).
• E-Book – Payment Card Acceptance Guide (19 pages).

The City of San Francisco is rolling out today its first credit- and debit-card-accepting parking meters. About 200 of the high-tech meters are part of a new program, called SF Park. Their number is projected to grow to 5,100 in three months, or about 20 percent of the metered parking spots.

The City touts the new meters’ convenience of use and claims they will help alleviate traffic, although the reason is not immediately apparent. “Circling for parking accounts for 30 percent of The City’s traffic congestion, and this will help reduce that,” said Paul Rose, spokesman for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which governs most of The City’s meters.

One thing is clear, however. With parking cost at a metered space of anywhere from $2 to $4 an hour in San Francisco, using a card is much easier than carrying a pocketful of quarters. “People will avoid so many tickets if they can pay with a credit card,” says Robby Pixton, who lives in Hayes Valley. “How can they charge up to $4 an hour and expect people to pay with change?”

(Via SFExaminer.com)

Learn how to minimize chargebacks and fraud

Learn how to minimize chargebacks and reduce your processing costs. The Chargeback Management kit contains a video and an e-book:

• E-Book – Chargeback Manual (40 pages).
• Video – Card Acceptance Best Practices for Lowest Processing Costs (18 min).