Payment
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Starbucks now lets you pay with Venmo
Starbucks is teaming up with Venmo to let you use the popular payment service at its retail locations.
Apple Pay illegally profited by walling off contactless payments, lawsuit alleges
Credit unions and banks are accusing Apple of anti-competitive behavior.
Uber CEO says you'll eventually be able to pay with cryptocurrency
Uber users will eventually be able to pay for rides using Bitcoin, said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
Amazon's palm-reading payment tech is now available in New York City
Amazon One palm payments are now available in New York City — if only through one store for now.
The UK is considering starting a digital currency
The Bank of England and HM Treasury are jointly exploring a central bank digital currency that would co-exist alongside traditional cash and deposits.
More Amazon Go stores are getting contactless One palm readers
Starting today, Amazon One palm-reading tech is coming to the Amazon Go location at Madison & Minor, and will expand to will come to two additional Seattle area stores “in the coming weeks,
Lyft is adding Venmo as a payment option
Splitting the cost of your rides is about to get a little easier.
Chase takes on Square with its own contactless payment system
Chase has introduced a competitor to Square, Business Complete Banking, that makes contactless payments easy.
Venmo's first credit card offers adjustable cashback rewards
After an almost year-long wait, Venmo's first credit card is here, bringing with it a couple of interesting features.
Epic Games offers ‘Fortnite’ discounts if you bypass Android and iOS app stores
Epic Games is offering 'Fortnite' discounts for players who make in-app purchases outside of the App Store and Google Play Store.
UK raises contactless payment limit to £45 amid coronavirus spread
The limit for contactless card payments in the UK will be increased to £45 from April 1st. According to UK Finance, the decision was already under consideration by those in the industry, but the process has been sped up to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, and to support consumers that would rather pay by contactless at this time. It's important to clarify, however, that the World Health Organization has not warned people against using paper money and coins, but it does advise thorough handwashing after handling it.
Bird wants you to make purchases through its mobile app
E-scooter startup Bird has started testing a new in-app payments feature called Bird Pay. If you live in Santa Monica or Los Angeles, you can try it out at select businesses across the two cities. If you see a tablet like the one pictured above, you can pay for a purchase by opening the Bird app, scanning a QR code, entering the amount you owe and then swiping up to confirm the payment. It's not as straightforward of a solution as say Apple Pay, but it does bypass the need for an NFC terminal -- which businesses in the US have been slow to adopt.
Vodafone is the latest to leave Facebook's Libra Association
The Facebook-created Libra Association is still bleeding members months after it formalized its council. Telecom giant Vodafone has confirmed to CoinDesk that it left the Association. Unlike past defectors, though, it's not so much about regulatory jitters surrounding the cryptocurrency. Vodafone said it instead wanted to focus on expanding its own payment service, M-Pesa, beyond the six African countries where it's currently available. It's not burning bridges -- the company said it wouldn't rule out the possibility of "future cooperation."
Amazon may offer hand recognition payments to other stores
Amazon's rumored hand recognition payment tech might be useful beyond paying for produce at Whole Foods. Wall Street Journal sources say the company is developing hand-based checkout terminals that it would sell to "coffee shops, fast-food restaurants" and other stores that tend to have repeat customers, not just Whole Foods. It's also clearer as to how the technology might work. The system would reportedly start by linking your payment card to your hand, asking you to insert your old-school plastic and scan your hand before you could pay using your hand alone.
Y2K-type glitch is causing NYC parking meters to reject credit cards
A software glitch is causing parking meters throughout New York City to reject credit and prepaid parking cards, The New York Times reports. The payment software was set to expire on January 1st, and the vendor reportedly failed to update the software before the new year. So, at the stroke of midnight Wednesday, the city rang in a bug reminiscent of those feared around Y2K, which predicted computer systems would crash.
Facebook Pay lets you buy goods and send money inside Facebook's apps
Libra isn't Facebook's only big leap into the payment world. The social media giant has unveiled Facebook Pay, its bid at simplifying both purchases and money transfers. Once you've set a payment method, it's theoretically quick and easy to buy tickets, shop on Marketplace, contribute to fundraisers or cover your share of last night's pizza. You can set it up on an app-by-app basis, but Facebook also lets you set it up across apps -- a one-time setup could make it useful across Facebook's ecosystem. The core app and Messenger will support Pay in the US this week, while Instagram, WhatsApp and more countries are in the pipeline.
Apple Pay is more popular than Starbucks for US mobile payments
For a while, the most popular payment app in the US was... Starbucks. Yes, enough people were buying venti lattes that even dedicated payment services were being left by the wayside. You can't say the same now, though. Analysts at eMarketer have estimated that Apple Pay will be more popular than Starbucks' payments in the US, with 30.3 million iPhone owners using the tap-to-pay option in 2019 versus Starbucks' 25.2 million. The alternatives aren't likely to come close, apparently. Google Pay should have 12.1 million users, while Samsung Pay is poised to have 10.8 million users.
eBay, Visa and Mastercard pull out of Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency
Stripe and eBay have followed PayPal in backing out of Facebook's cryptocurrency, Libra. They confirmed to the Financial Times that they would pull their support, while Mastercard and Visa have also dropped out.
Amazon may may offer cashierless Go tech to movie theaters and stadiums
Even if it doesn't open the stores itself, you could see Amazon-style cashierless stores proliferate across the US. According to CNBC, Amazon is in talks with a variety of merchants, including movie theatres, airport stores and sports stadiums to license its Go technology to those companies. Specifically, CNBC says Amazon has approached OTG's CIBO Express and Cineworld's Regal Theatres about potential partnerships. The company could also license the tech to concession stands at MLB stadiums.
Amazon rolls out a cash payment option for online orders in the US
Amazon is bringing its cash payment option for Amazon.com orders to the US. If you'd like to pay with physical money, you can select the PayCode option at checkout. You'll receive a QR code, then you'll have 24 hours to pay for the goods at a participating Western Union. If you'd like to refund an item, you can get your cash back from a Western Union too.
