In an article titled "Rapt in plastic", Lesley Parker writes for the Sydney Morning Herald about the growth in so-called "scheme debit cards" among Australian consumers. The story notes an analyst report finding that use of the debit cards has grown from 14 per cent in June 2005 to about 23 per cent now while there has been a gradual but persistent fall in credit-card payments from about 28 per cent to about 26 per cent over that same period.

With the slogan "Keep Your Cash", Southwest Airlines has announced that beginning September 9th, you'll not be able to use cash in the cabin to purchase onboard drinks, etc. [Hat tip: CreditCards.com]

Bill Me Later has announced it will host a webinar on Thursday, September 18, at 1 PM EDT where Russ Jones and Allen Weinberg of Glenbrook Partners will provide an in-depth look at how retailers evaluate alternative payments. READ MORE »

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Payments Cards Center has extracted payment-card-related items from the Bank's quarterly legislative update. "Among other topics, this issue contains information about a proposed rule to require creditors to provide risk-based pricing notices to consumers as well as judicial decisions and legislation affecting the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)."

Results from recent trials of NFC mobile payments in the UK demonstrate strong interest by consumers in having that form of payment available. According to the report, "nine out of ten trialists were happy using NFC technology on a mobile phone and 78% said they would be interested in using contactless services if available."

Yesterday, Google announced that today it would be making available a beta version of Google Chrome, a new open source web browser.

In its announcement blog posting, Google said: "We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build."

More details are available in this comic book that describes the motivation and design behind Chrome. A summary analysis of Chrome's many new features - including some new trust and safety features - is available here.

NetSpend has announced an alliance with Axcess Financial alliance to create the NetSpend Axcess Prepaid MasterCard (the Axcess Card), a general purpose reloadable prepaid debit card, and enables the Axcess Card and the NetSpend National Savings Program to be available to thousands of customers across the country through Axcess Financial's distribution channels. READ MORE »

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