News, Plastic cards

A global payments provider Elavon, wholly owned by US Bancorp, has partnered with China UnionPay to enable merchants of Elavon accept UnionPay’s debit and credit card payments in Canada with the plans to further expand into Latin America.

The partnership bases Elavon’s secure, world class international processing platform to provide merchants with the benefit of a single point of service for processing, funding, settlement and reporting for all Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express®, Discover® Network and UnionPay transactions.

Visa Inc announced its plans to introduce new fee scheme for US merchants. In a conference call with analysts Visa Chief Executive Joseph Saunders said the company would introduce a network participation fee in the United States for all of its debit, credit and prepaid card services.

Among other things in the new policy Visa will lower the variable rate charged for transactions.

The move comes in the wake of new fee structure that will take effect later this year under 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

TransCard, LLC is reporting that its Community Issuer Prepaid Program is being widely adopted nationwide.

The company reports that 29 issuers of all sizes in 18 states have signed on as charter program partners leading the prepaid vanguard in their communities.

The issuers who have already launched payroll, GPR or gift programs, include Central Bank of Kansas City in Missouri; Home Savings Bank in Ohio; Central Bank and Trust in Kansas and St. John in Kansas.

ParTech Inc has partnered with VeriFone Systems Inc to launch an integrated end-to-end encryption for point-of-sale applications. The integration of VeriFone’s VeriShield® Total Protect, Secured by RSA, solution and PAR EverServ® Software enables restaurant customers to make safer payment card transactions while reducing the cost of Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance for restaurant operators.

Google Inc is launching a credit card for advertisers in a move to increase ad spending as the competition in the market is growing.

The card will be offered to select Google’s clients in the US with a competitive interest rate, says Google. The card features ample credit line and no annual fee, and can be used only for paying for search advertising on the search engine website.

The AdWords Business credit card allows businesses to spend more on Google’s search ads when their needs arise.

Chase Card Services, a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co, has partnered United Airlines to introduce a new United MileagePlus® Explorer Card that offers unique benefits and perks.

Cardmembers participating in MileagePlus Explorer program will receive special bonuses when traveling on United including first checked bag free, priority boarding, passes to United airport club lounges and the ability to redeem MileagePlus miles for any seat, any time, on any United flight, with no restrictions and no blackout dates.

American Express launched a first of its kind Facebook application “Link, Like, Love” to provide its cardmembers with deals, access and experiences based on the likes, interests and social connections of cardmembers and their Facebook friends.

Using American Express Facebook page customers can link their cards to the program and choose their favorite deals; American Express will send statement credits to cardmembers’ accounts as they shop online or in stores, without the need to pre-purchase anything, print out or show a coupon at the point of sale.

Citi Cards along with American Airlines announced the addition to their 24-year Citi® / AAdvantage® credit card portfolio. Now the Citi ExecutiveSM / AAdvantage® World EliteTM MasterCard® will deliver exclusive elite-level travel services and experiences to American’s flyers.

The Citi ExecutiveSM / AAdvantage® World EliteTM MasterCard® provides a new class of cardmember privileges, including:

Diners Club International, a subsidiary of Discover Financial Services, has partnered with Russian Standard Bank (RSB) to form a new Diners Club International franchise in Russia. RSB will assume all responsibility for the Diners Club brand and business in Russia and Ukraine in issuing and acquiring.

American Express OPEN announced the launch of YourBuzz service that allows small businesses to manage their online presence and learn what is being said about them and their rivals in the social networking sphere. YourBuzz aggregates conversations across such sites as Yelp and CitySearch as well as Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter. YourBuzz ensures listings are accurate, builds customer relationships, and mitigates the damage that can be done from poor reviews.

American Express is launching a new program to allow its Cardmembers to pay for Facebook Ads by means of Membership Rewards points, the first time in the history rewards are redeemed this way.

With the addition of Membership Rewards points as a payment option, business owners now have a powerful new way to build their businesses through the rapidly growing area of social media advertising.

American Express in alliance with foursquare announced the national rollout of their new service following a successful pilot at South by Southwest in March. The service allows American Express® Cardmembers who link their foursquare profiles to their cards to “load” and seamlessly redeem merchant Specials without the need for coupons, special codes, or showing their mobile devices to cashiers.

Ukash, the Global eMoney network, has announced the launch of the UkashOut MasterCard®, which enables consumers to convert their electronic money back to cash safely and securely.
With UkashOut MasterCard®, consumers can “close the loop” on eMoney payments by loading their cash onto a UkashOut MasterCard® using their Ukash vouchers.

American Express announced that it will offer to AOL’s Patch a digital payment and commerce platform dubbed Serve. Customers will be able to register for Serve accounts via hundreds of Patch sites.

Patch will also offer users the ability to redeem local deals and transact with local merchants via the American Express network. Through the partnership, local merchants will be able to post offers online in a more streamlined, effective way, and consumers will benefit by redeeming offers at the point of sale.

American Express announced the launch of a new reloadable prepaid card with no activation or maintenance fees.

Customers pay no fees for purchasing the Card online, monthly maintenance, activation, balance inquiries, alerts, Card replacement, foreign currency conversion or loading via bank account.

Besides, the funds on the Card do not expire, and if lost or stolen, the funds can be replaced. The first monthly ATM cash withdrawal is free, after which a $2.00 fee applies (bank network charges may also apply).