Fifth Third Processing Solutions has announced that "Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chain, has signed a new, multi-year contract for credit card processing services to all of its retail locations throughout the United States."   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Restaurants Test Table Card Readers", Greg Bluestein writes for the Associated Press about pay at the table POS systems - very popular in a number of markets outside the US but slow to catch on here. Terminal suppliers now see an opportunity - increased concern about mag stripe card skimming - and feel that the time may be right for pay at the table to take off.

Heartland Payment Systems has announced it has announced a strategic relationship with Bremer Financial Corporation (Bremer Bank), based in St. Paul, MN. "Initially, more than 1,500 of Bremer's current merchant clients will be converted to Heartland's processing system. Heartland and Bremer will also focus on a joint business development program that leverages both companies' regional customer bases for new business and cross selling opportunities."   » Continue Reading

eBay has announced that it is simplifying the PayPal Promotional Financing offers displayed on eBay auctions by removing the more advanced (complicated?) financing offers and replacing them with a standard simplified financing offer. eBay says the more advanced offers had low adoption while the standard offer has shown a positive effect on sales. PayPal's promotional financing is offered through a partnership with GE Money.

Carolyn Said writes for the San Francisco Chronicle about San Francisco-based startup Rex & Co. - short for Real Estate and Equity Exchange. Rex allows home owners to sell a share of the future appreciation potential in their homes in exchange for an immediate cash payment to the home owner. According to the companay, "the REX Agreement is not a loan, but a real estate investment agreement in the form of a purchase option. It gives homeowners a portion of their home’s equity in cash today—in exchange for the right of REX & Co. to share in a specified percentage of the future increase or decrease in the home’s value."

Heather Timmons writes for the New York Times about some consumer reactions in India to credit card fees. "Credit card rates and fees frustrate borrowers around the world, but Indian consumers have something special to complain about. Interest rates average more than 30 percent, and can soar to over 50 percent, while charges tacked on for late payments are sometimes a hefty 20 percent of the overall balance."

The Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has published "An Update on Trends in the Debit Card Market" (PDF) by Julia S. Cheney that documents a workshop held at the center in March. The paper describes trends and issues affecting the debit card market with respect to performance metrics, networks and interchange, debit rewards, and debit card fraud.

Bloomberg reports on an interview with eBay CEO Meg Whitman: "PayPal is a huge home run,'' Whitman, EBay's chief executive officer, said in an interview. "It's the most innovative Web payment product out there and has done really well, even in the face of a little bit of a challenge from Google.''

TextPayMe, one of the first person-to-person mobile payment services to launch (PN first covered TextPayMe on December 13, 2005), has recently enabled users to link a Visa or MasterCard to their TextPayMe account for the purpose of funding payments. TextPayMe says it is currently "designed for personal use only" and caps the amount of money that can be sent or received at $500 per month per account - but the company says it is "working to include a merchant account feature to allow our users to surpass the initial payment limits." TextPayMe is currently offering a $5 referral bonus for referring new members to its mobile payment service.

Becky Yerak writes for the Chicago Tribune about a new ING Direct Cafe opening soon at the southwest corner of Chestnut and Wabash Streets in Chicago. More info about the ING Direct Cafes is available on the ING Direct web site.

Late last month, the US Government Accountability Office issued a study report titled "SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS - Use is Widespread and Protection Could Be Improved" (PDF).   » Continue Reading