Source

One year after the launch in Sweden, iZettle is preparing to launch in the UK. Stockholm-based iZettle provides a mobile payment service that allows businesses to accept card payments with their smartphone or tablet. The EMV-approved card reader, which is attached to the bottom of the device, allows users to take payments from chip-enabled credit or debit cards. During the trial phase iZettle will test its service with 3,000 individuals and small businesses in the UK. The commercial launch of iZettle in the UK is scheduled for later this year. Read more

Mobile Payment: MasterCard partners with Ogone to Bring PayPass Wallet to Europe

MasterCard has selected Ogone to become the first European payment services provider to offer PayPass Wallet. With PayPass Wallet consumers can store their payment details in a digital wallet and use it to make purchases online and in stores. The service is not limited to MasterCard branded cards, so consumers can use other credit, debit and prepaid cards. As a result of the partnership, online merchants that are using Ogone will be able to provide their customers the option to pay with PayPass Wallet. Read more

PayPal is Pushing Into Physical Stores: More Retailers to Adopt PayPal In-Store Payments

According to All Things D, PayPal will unveil new retailers that are going to accept PayPal as payment method next week. PayPal is very successful in online payments and is now moving into the retail market as well. So far PayPal Store Checkout is available at more than 2,000 Home Depot stores across the United States. With PayPal Store Checkout customers can pay with their mobile phone number and PIN or by swiping a PayPal card and entering the PIN. The purchases are linked directly to the customer’s PayPal account. Read more

With the increasing number of NFC-enabled smartphones and new NFC applications the Smart Card Alliance will now focus more on contactless and mobile technology. The Smart Card Alliance announces the formation of the Mobile and NFC Council to provide a platform for bringing together the NFC technologies and the industry. The Smart Card Alliance is a multi-industry association working to advance use and adoption of smart card (a card with an embedded microchip) technology. Read more about the Mobile and NFC Council

Alternative Payment: GameStop will sell Steam Wallet cards in U.S. stores

Video game retailer GameStop is partnering with its digital rival Valve to sell Steam Wallet cards in all U.S. GamesStop locations. Valve’s Steam is an online platform for the delivery and management of PC games. The Steam Wallet cards enable customers that don’t have access to credit cards (or don’t want to use them for online purchases) to purchase games online via the Steam platform. Source

Cards: Ingenico brings EMV and NFC-enabled POS terminals to the U.S.

Ingenico, a provider of payment solutions and devices, partners with distributor POS Portal to bring the latest NFC and EMV-ready Telium series point-of-sale POS devices into the United States. Joe Villamil, VP of Business Development at POS Portal commented: “The migration to EMV presents complex challenges for our customers. We are confident that Ingenico and its new Telium range of POS products will be a perfect fit for our company.” More…

• Online payment company Dwolla wins a Best of Show Award at FinovateSpring, a conference about innovative financial and banking technology. Dwolla is a web based payment platform that allows users to send, receive, and request money from other users. The service is free for micro-transactions, for transactions above $10 Dwolla charges a flat fee of $0.25. The company received the award for their new FISync technology that enables users to integrate their bank accounts directly with the Dwolla platform.

Mobile Payment

• Mobile wallet service ISIS, a joint venture between the U.S. carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, add support for American Express cards. ISIS is a mobile wallet payment service based on NFC technology. Read more
• MasterCard starts its new PayPass Wallet service. Customers can store their payment credentials in the digital wallet and use the service to pay online and in stores. Tap-and-go in-store payments can be made using a NFC-enabled smartphone and the PayPass Wallet app. Read more

Cards

• Citi Ventures, Citi’s venture arm, invests $3.3M in online payment and ID verification company Jumio. Jumio’s Netswipe solution turns a webcam into a credit card scanner. The camera analyzes and verifies the physical credit card in real time. Card holders only have to approve the transaction by entering the security code number and the additional security and authentication mechanism 3-D Secure of Visa and MasterCard. The service supports Visa, MasterCard, JCB, Diners Club and American Express credit cards. Read more

One of the most successful ones is the iDEAL. It is a real-time online payment method that is based on online banking in the Netherlands. It was launched in 2005 and has now become the most popular (currently has a 50%+ market share, accepted by 80%+ of online merchants) online payment method in the Netherlands.

How does it work?

With iDEAL customers can pay for online purchases directly from their bank account. All major banks in the Netherlands, such as ABN AMRO, Rabobank and ING Bank support iDEAL. The iDEAL service is operated by Currence, a bank association that coordinates the payment systems in the Netherlands. To accept iDEAL payments a merchant can sign up at a certified bank or payment service provider.

Acceptance and use of online payment methods (source: Currence iDEAL factsheet)

This is how iDEAL works:

• The customer selects that he wants to pay with iDEAL and selects his bank during the checkout.
• He is then redirected to his banks login page to authorize the payment using a TAN.
• The bank verifies the transaction and initiates the transfer to the merchant’s bank account.
• The customer is then redirected back to website and the shop will get a conformation of the payment.
• The merchant will receive the payment within 1-2 working days on his bank account.

Advantages

Compared to other payment methods iDEAL offers some advantages for merchants and customers. Millions of customers already use online banking and can use iDEAL without signing up or registering for third-party services. Also customers don’t have to share personal information such as account number with the online merchant. Merchants benefit from the real-time confirmed, guaranteed (by the customers bank) payments that cannot be reversed (no chargebacks).

The transaction fees depend on the size and sales volume of the merchant but are usually much lower (especially for larger transactions) than the fees for accepting credit card payments.

Limited to the Netherlands

iDEAL is based on the Dutch domestic transfer and is only available to customers of the participating banks in the Netherlands. There are planes to adapt iDEAL to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) standard so it can be used also for cross border payments within the E.U. There are similar local direct online banking services in other countries such as Giropay in Germany, EPS in Austria and Secure Vault Payments in the U.S.

MasterCard PayPass is a contactless payment method based on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The service lets consumers make purchases by tapping a credit card or other payment device instead of swiping or inserting a card. “The research shows that even after cardholders use contactless only once, there is a clear halo effect. Contactless should be considered by any issuer seeking to capture share today while establishing a platform for the future migration to mobile commerce,” commented Mark Barnett, Group Executive, Consulting Services for MasterCard Advisors.

MasterCard PayPass Infographic

Infographic source

Who is the “PayPal-rival” that reported a 10x growth in 2011? WePay was founded in 2008 by Bill Clerico and Rich Aberman with the goal to create an easy to use payment collection platform. The company is now headquartered in Palo Alto, CA and has raised a total of $20 million in funding. Among their investors are well known names such as Y Combinator, YouTube founder Steve Chen, and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin.

WePay started as an online group payment for individuals. Over time, the product portfolio evolved and WePay is now offering a range of payment solutions: sell items and tickets online, send bills online and accept donations online to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses and large merchants. WePay charges a fee of 3.5% ($0.50 minimum) for receiving credit card payments and a flat fee of $0.50 for bank payments. Currently WePay’s services are only available for users in the United States.

Check out the embedded video to see how WePay works:

Here is how those mobile POS services work: At the time of a purchase, the customer’s credit card is swiped by a small reader that is attached to the mobile device of the merchant. The signature is collected directly on the screen of the mobile device.

There are several companies fighting for the mobile POS – most recently online payment veteran PayPal presented its own mobile POS solution PayPal Here.

The table below provides a brief overview on the existing mobile POS solutions:

]]> http://www.paymentobserver.com/fight-for-the-mobile-point-of-sale-4841/feed 0 http://www.paymentobserver.com/fight-for-the-mobile-point-of-sale-4841 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PaymentObserver/~3/pnZdOIUgHbc/infographic-credit-cards-in-numbers-4827 http://www.paymentobserver.com/infographic-credit-cards-in-numbers-4827#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 09:57:28 +0000 Gary Merrett http://www.paymentobserver.com/?p=4827 Online payment service provider PayLane has created the infographic below visualizing the number of credit cards issued: 

Similar to PayPal, V.me by Visa enables customers to store their credit card details into a digital wallet. Instead of entering their payment and shipping details every time they want to shop online, users can use V.me for the checkout process. The service is not limited to Visa cards; MasterCard, AmEx and Discovers cards are also supported. According to Visa, V.me will also provide features beyond payments such as transaction alerts, promotions and reward programs. “Our intention is that V.me will ultimately be able to incorporate any or all of our new payment technologies, allowing our members to deliver the best possible payments experience whether face-to-face, online or in a mobile environment,” said Mariano Dima, Executive VP of Product and Marketing Solutions at Visa Europe.