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Coin makes up for its delayed smart card launch with an expanded beta test
Not happy that Coin said it was only shipping a beta version of its Bluetooth credit card this fall, rather than the finished product it originally promised for the summer? You're not alone -- and the company is aware that it needs to make amends for angering early adopters. The fledgling payment firm has apologized for both the delay and lack of transparency by significantly expanding the reach of its beta program. It's planning to run a nationwide test for beta backers at "no cost," and it will expand the initial number of slots in that dry run from 10,000 to 15,000 -- not a perfect solution, but definitely more accommodating. It's also hoping to increase the number of slots over time, so you may not have to wait for the finished product if you miss out on the first wave.
United States credit card system begins complete overhaul in the next 18 months
The United States is lagging behind most of the world when it comes to credit card technology, but luckily it's about to catch up. In the next 18 months, the US is gearing up to transition debit and credit cards away from the magnetic stripe to embedded chip technology, which is already widely used in Europe, Asia and beyond. Who can you thank for the long-overdue upgrade? Target, whose data security breach earlier this year highlighted the security flaws in the magnetic stripe system. It's a 50-year-old technology, after all, and it's much easier to counterfeit than the computer chip in your next Visa card.
MasterCard and Visa users may soon flip the switch on KitKat NFC payments
With a consumer reception that could be described as lukewarm at best, mobile payments haven't exactly been a raging success. Despite Google's efforts, Wallet failed to take off, while Isis also continues to struggle, despite support from major US carriers. Now, MasterCard and Visa are readying yet another potential solution, this time tapping the new Host Card Emulation (HCE) support in Android 4.4. The service, which is only supported in NFC-enabled KitKat phones, stores credit card info remotely rather than on an embedded "secure element," expanding compatibility beyond pre-approved apps. With HCE, when you go to make a payment, your phone will transfer credit card data directly to the NFC terminal, without storing it in your handset. MasterCard and Visa are both working to finalize the specification, following various trials over the last few months. Ideally, a significant number of credit card holders will be able to take advantage of HCE-enabled payments beginning later in 2014, with more details to come in the first half of this year. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
The definition of karma: PayPal president's credit card gets hacked
If you've ever lost access to your PayPal holdings through no fault of your own -- say, following a shady money transfer -- you may be tempted to enjoy a little schadenfreude today. PayPal president David Marcus reports that someone used a skimming device to clone his credit card while he was in the UK, letting the perpetrator make a "ton" of fraudulent purchases. It's virtually the embodiment of karmic payback, isn't it? In fairness, the executive is right when he notes that the incident wouldn't have happened if the merchant accepted PayPal; the company would have masked the card number and rendered the skimmer useless. And we sincerely hope that Marcus' finances are back in order. All the same, the affair shows just why business leaders should be sympathetic to their customers' problems -- one day, they may be stuck in the same boat.
Need money for a new Moto X? Motorola's got a financing fix for that
Google's all about getting you to spend, spend, spend money these days. While the search giant just announced a very plastic means of dipping into your Wallet, its Motorola arm's taking the financing route. Backed by Comenity Capital Bank, Motorola's offering users a no money down way to buy a Moto X or any of its other mobile wares -- so long as you pay it off within the promo period. Motorola Credit's pretty much the equivalent of signing up for a credit card -- just without the actual card -- so be mindful there are fine print strings attached, like a 29 percent APR. You also still have to go through the requisite approval process, but once that's cleared, you're free to spend above your means. But really, no phone's worth the potential debt, so think hard before you sign on the dotted line.
Reward Summit tracks your credit card reward programs so you don't have to
Reward Summit is a new finance app that has one goal in mind -- help you save money by using the right credit card when you make a purchase. The app tracks your credit card reward programs and tells you which card will save you the most money when you buy that big-screen TV. Reward Summit only works if you add your credit cards to the app. A thoughtfully designed UI makes it easy to securely and privately add your cards and their reward programs to the app. You don't have to add any personal details or credit card numbers, just the card type (i.e., Capital One Cash Rewards) that you own. If you are not sure what type of card you own, you can search through a list of banks and the major reward programs they offer. You should be able to match the card in your wallet with the card in the app in just a few taps. When you add your cards to the app, you can save them in the cloud by creating a Reward Summit account. If you want to store the card details only on your phone, you can just click "No Thanks" when prompted to create an account. When your cards are entered into the app, you are ready to go shopping. The app uses your location to find nearby stores, and you can pick the one that you are visiting. This store list is limited, especially in my area, which is quite rural. Once you pick your store, you can dial in the amount that you want to spend and let the app recommend which card you should use. A handy reporting feature allows you to view your lifetime savings as compared to other users. Not surprisingly, this comparison feature requires a Reward Summit account. Besides finding discounts, Reward Summit is also an informational tool that'll list your cards and the details of their rewards programs. Most people sign up for cards because of their cash rewards, but many people don't realize their cards carry other benefits like roadside service or extended warranties. The biggest gripe I have with Reward Summit is that it subtly pushes you to sign up for credit cards that you don't own. If you are making a purchase and your card only offers 1 percent back, the app will show cards that offer 5 percent back. The promotional offer is static and situated in the center of the page. You do have to click the promotion to view the details, but some may find its mere presence annoying. The opportunity to sign up for a card isn't limited to the buying advice page. Reward Summit also lets you apply for cards when you are browsing the app's catalog of banks and their credit card reward programs. Some people may consider this to be a feature and may appreciate being able to find and apply for a card that offers a sizable reward. Reward Summit is for people looking to save money by taking advantage of the reward programs offered by their credit cards. It landed today in the iOS App Store today and is available for free.
'Chip and PIN' card reader for iOS selling in European Apple Stores
Merchants here in Europe will soon be able to walk into an Apple store and buy a Bluetooth "chip and PIN" reader that talks to the iPhone right off the shelf. Until now, merchants here didn't have a lot of immediate access to tech that allows them to take payments via their iPhones and iPads. Square is still not available in Europe, while the Swedish iZettle card reader can't be bought in retail stores. But things are about to get easier, because Payleven has just inked a deal with Apple to carry its chip and PIN device in stores, reports TheNextWeb. Unlike Square, Payleven doesn't connect directly to your iPhone. Instead it uses Bluetooth to talk wirelessly to it -- something that is nice because you don't have to hand your iDevice to dozens of different customers each day. After the merchant enters the amount of the transaction in the Payleven app, customers insert their credit or debit card into the chip and PIN reader and enter their PIN, at which point the app processes their payments. The Payleven Chip and PIN reader is available in Apple stores for £99. Users also get a £20 credit for card processing fees. There are no subscription fees to use Payleven, but merchants will be charged 2.7% per transaction. The Payleven app is a free download.
ChargeCard pocket iPhone charger starts shipping, we go hands- and wallets-on
Perhaps we all bemoaned the death of the 30-pin dock connector accessories a little prematurely. Apple may be moving away from the technology in a huge way, but it seems the category's got a little juice left in her after all. On the back of a successful Kickstarter campaign last summer (raising a bit more than three times its proposed $50,000), the duo behind ChargeCard took their iPhone charger on the road to Las Vegas in January. Roughly half a year after hitting its goal, the product has finally started shipping, with one of the units making its way to our desk just this week. The ChargeCard's clever in its simplicity, a credit card-sized device made from ABS (think: Lego) plastic. A little rubberized arm lives in the center of the thing, unfolding and plugging into a USB port. One edge of the card, meanwhile, fits into your iPhone's port (assuming, of course, that you're not one of those fancy pants iPhone 5 owners, you big shot, you). And, well, that's pretty much all there is to the thing.
MasterCard opens EMV tech to US debit networks, hopes to spur adoption (update)
After almost sixteen years of trying to encourage EMV adoption in the US, MasterCard has hit upon a potential reason why it's not catching on: its closed, proprietary standard. But that's changing today, with the financial giant announcing it's making some of its circuit card tech open to other US debit networks instead of waiting on them to come up with their own solution. An alternative to magnetic strips, EMV claims to provide more secure payments thanks to the use of cryptographic algorithms and user-specific PINs, but hasn't captured much interest stateside. Perhaps in opening the standard, MasterCard and crew will spur its US adoption and thus garner more EMV followers. Of course, it has to catch on before NFC replaces cards entirely, rendering the issue moot. (Update: We erroneously stated EMV isn't popular outside of Europe and Asia -- it's actually prevalent in other parts of the world as well, just not in the US.)
Square reaches $10 billion in payments per year, stays ahead of a growing pack
It was just this spring that Square had reached a grandiose $5 billion per year payment rate and cemented its position at the top of the mobile payment processing field it practically started. Any attempts to catch up just got a lot harder now that the startup has crossed the $10 billion mark, only half a year later. A fifth of that new rate came in the past two months and hints that the company isn't about to slow down anytime soon. The increase doesn't have any clear driver, apart from wider media exposure, but founder Jack Dorsey notes that this doesn't include the Starbucks deal that took effect just days ago. We know the rocket-like pace won't last forever; all the same, the record-high levels of business undoubtedly give Square a lot of competitive padding when a deluge of recently established alternatives are still getting started.
Google Wallet update purportedly leaks plans for a real-world card, transfers and transit passes
Google Wallet hasn't had much uptake in the real world. When most of its use has revolved around one carrier, few payment points and even fewer phones, most of us have had to sit on the sidelines. If an Android Police source really did come across a leaked future build of Google Wallet as he claims, though, we may know how Google surmounts that problem: going old school with a real-world card. Screenshots in the app supposedly show a mail-in option for plastic that could completely replace credit and debit cards without turning to NFC. Any charges after a typical swipe of the magnetic strip would simply go to whatever payment source is set as Wallet's default, letting minimalists slim down their actual wallets while sharing in the same discounts as their phone-wielding counterparts. Digital-only purists would still get something out of the deal, as the update could also bring person-to-person money transfers and support for mass transit cards. How soon the as yet unconfirmed app would appear is still a mystery, but it dovetails with Google teasing a Wallet revamp that's rumored to take mobile use beyond its Android-only roots; we just didn't anticipate that the company might bypass our phones altogether.
PayPal Here goes on sale at AT&T stores: like a one-stop shop for account hiccups
PayPal Here, despite all its focus on in-store transactions, hasn't really been available to buy in a US store -- that's been the domain of the seemingly ubiquitous Square reader. eBay's payment wing has at last established that retail beachhead through a deal with AT&T. About 1,800 of the carrier's stores are now carrying PayPal Here readers, and they'll keep the service's big rival from hogging the spotlight at a time when most aren't even aware that there's any competition. If you're still cynical, you can look at the AT&T move as a matter of convenience: at least this way, all your account headaches will come from one place.
Editorial: Square gets the attention, but credit cards rule
Lower Manhattan, Pearl Street, the Financial District. A Starbucks with broad windows, great for people watching. Sipping my $5 flavored coffee, I watched a homeless man sit on the sidewalk. I liked him immediately: his sharp gaze and thoughtful expression. When I left, I squatted down next to him and put five bucks in his jar, contributing the cost of my first-world coffee to the man's case for survival. We talked. He knew his tech, this man of no possessions, describing his favorite productivity gadgets of the past decade, scorning Apple for form over function. He had been living on the street day and night for two years. My five dollars was "huge," he said. I knew that was true only microcosmically. He liked cigars. That's where the cash would go. Meanwhile, Starbucks had recently cut a deal with Square, one of the hottest startup stories of the season, so that people with five dollars to spend on coffee needn't pull out a wallet and ponder their privilege.
The HEX Code Wallet case is nicely built, but a little too unwieldy
A few years ago, I decided to do my best to narrow down the number of things I carry around in my pockets every single day. Instead of one giant keychain with all of the keys I've ever owned on it, I cut down to two smaller keychains, one for my house and another for my car. And instead of a giant wallet that had been stretching out my back pants pockets, I instead just grabbed the insert out and stuck my ID and a few cards in there. Other than that, my iPhone 4 is the largest thing I carry around all the time. Of course, the functionality is definitely worth it, but still, I've always wondered if there was a way I could go even lighter, and combine my iPhone and wallet into one unit. The HEX Code Wallet case for the iPhone 4 or 4S is designed to do just that: It's a very well-made leather wraparound case that has a few card slots on the inside front cover, and the goal is to simply store a credit card or two and your ID, so that you don't need to carry around both a phone and a wallet when you go out. Unfortunately, the HEX Wallet isn't what I'm looking for. While it will definitely store your cards as needed, it's just too unwieldy for the simplicity that I'm after. The case is definitely well-built -- the leather on the outside is solid, if a little too rough. Inside, however, the leather that holds your cards is quite luxurious, and the plastic that holds in the iPhone is smooth and strong. I had no problem snapping my iPhone 4 into place, and while it was a little tougher to get it out, presumably you won't be removing it much once you've purchased this one. All of the buttons are, obviously, accessible, and a nice open area near the dock connector means I had no issues hooking my iPhone up to a charging cable while in the case. The biggest issue with the HEX, however, is when you start to put your cards in it. There are three slots on the inside front cover, as well as a larger pocket behind. But if you actually do use all three slots, the case becomes quite thick, and a little too unwieldy for my taste. Plus, even with my wallet insert, I still carry around 10 or 12 cards (from various customer appreciation programs and discount stores), so the HEX wouldn't work for me all of the time anyway. The other issue I have with the case is the strap that runs from top to bottom outside, and is meant to keep the case closed and shut when you're done with the iPhone. While the strap itself is nice and strong and seems well-connected to the case, I just found it in the way while I was using the case, and it felt a little awkward snapping it back around when the case was being closed. Fans of Moleskine notebooks may love this strap, but personally, it didn't work for what I wanted. And finally, though this is probably the most personal of my feedback, I just don't like the idea of a cover flap on my iPhone. It makes what is a really beautiful and simple device into something off-center and even ugly. The flap doesn't fold around to the back at all, so when you're using the iPhone with this case on, it's basically a book where you're only reading the right side of the page. I admit that this is mostly personal taste, but that's not the case for me. If you do just have a few cards you want to make sure are always with your iPhone, and you don't mind those concerns about having a cover and a strap on your case, then the HEX Wallet might be what you're looking for. At $50, it's not cheap, but the production materials aren't cheap here, either -- this definitely feels like a case that can last a while, and the black one I tested did look quite classy, especially when closed. But this case definitely isn't the one for me. Personally, I'm more excited about the possibilities of Passbook in iOS 6, and any other future technologies that allow me to use my iPhone as a credit card, identification system or even car key. Eventually, my hope is that all I'll ever have to carry around to get whatever I need will be Apple's gorgeous smartphone, and any case it needs will accent its beauty, rather than try to cover it all up.
Google Wallet to phase out prepaid card, cut-off date set for October 17th
Google Wallet's prepaid card concept has been plagued with its share of security concerns, and though Mountain View seems to have sorted out those issues, it's now phasing out the prepaid card program entirely. The service was intended to make up for a limited choice in debit and credit cards, and now that Google Wallet accepts any and all plastic, the prepaid option is a bit moot. The cut-off date for adding funds to a Google prepaid card is September 17th, and the prepaid option will vanish entirely on October 17th. Whereas users were previously charged $2.00 per month after 180 days without a transaction, they'll get slapped with the same fee after 30 days of no purchases. Google says you can request a refund if you have a remaining balance after the prepaid option kicks the bucket, though it's probably a good idea to just go ahead and spend those leftover dollars. [Thanks, Chris]
Square intros flat-rate payment option at $275 per month, hits small business sweet spot
Square is most often pitched as heaven for small businesses, but that 2.75 percent cut per transaction is sometimes a problem for stores that are too successful. Enter a new flat rate option. Shops that don't take more than $250,000 a year in Square payments, or charge more than $400 in a given sale, can instead pay a flat $275 per month regardless of how many swipes they take. The deal makes the most sense for businesses handling more than $120,000 a year through the reader, establishing a definite limit to its usefulness; this isn't exactly for a budding jeweler (or Starbucks). Even so, the simplicity of the rate might be very alluring for companies that aren't keen on surprise costs or working out the math, and it's a contrast to the half-steps towards flat rates taken by VeriFone and other, more traditional outlets going mobile.
PayPal buys Card.io visual credit card scanner platform, is neither Here nor there
Thought PayPal was done upping its mobile payment game when it unveiled its triangular Square competitor earlier this year? Think again. Despite Here being, well, here, PayPal's not satisfied having but one way to scan your plastic, and so it's snapped up Card.io. In case you've forgotten, Card.io gathers credit card info visually using a smartphone's camera -- no scanning dongle required -- to save fingers and thumbs from having to enter payment info manually. Oh, and for folks fearing that PayPal would pull the plug on other apps' access to Card.io's SDK, not to worry -- PayPal assures us that Card.io's technology will remain available to developers.
Square now available at Walgreens, Staples and FedEx Office
While a roster of competitors are trying to get their foot in the mobile payments door, Square's busy getting a foothold in retail stores. With Walgreens, Staples and FedEx Office locations now carrying the credit card reader, it's available at more than 20,000 physical shops throughout the US -- joining Apple, Best Buy, OfficeMax, Radio Shack, Target, UPS and Wal-Mart. Bringing it home from a brick and mortar establishment will set you back $9.95, but Square's sweetening the pot with a $10 rebate for new users. However, if your entrepreneurial snail mail-loving heart desires, you can still have one mailed to you by signing up online. Eager to start swiping plastic? Lookout below for the full press release.
iCache Geode claims title of first shipping iPhone e-wallet, asks 'who needs NFC?'
Apple has been sending mixed signals as to whether or not it will bring NFC to the iPhone for mobile payments, but iCache clearly isn't waiting for the technology to show its face -- the company just started shipping its Geode e-wallet. As we saw just a few weeks ago, the Geode simply rolls existing credit and debit cards into a proxy GeoCard that's scanned at the store to handle transactions. Although it demands a specially-made case with an e-paper screen and fingerprint reader, not to mention an app to manage the attached cards, the choice lets an iPhone owner buy goods at all the usual places instead of having to hunt down special terminals. We like the one-card universe it creates, although it's clear the shopper has to carry a lot of the responsibility for making this digital payment dream a reality: at $200 a pop, the Geode's wallet-slimming effect carries a premium, especially since it won't work with anything besides an iPhone 4 or 4S.
PayPal and Softbank announce new joint venture in Japan, mobile app
PayPal has joined forces with Softbank to bring its mobile payment system / digital wallet to Japan. PayPal Here uses an encrypted card reader -- like its BFF Square, and more recently, VeriFone -- to minimize users' cash dependency. There's also a redesigned app that makes it easier for customers to locate participating merchants while they're out and about. The $25 million joint venture targets small businesses, especially those using iPhones (though it also works just fine on Android), and will be made available to the Japanese masses over the next several weeks. We're sure the setup will be used exclusively by the forces of good to stimulate the local economy.