Plastic Jungle, InComm, and Zeevex announced a strategic partnership that will allow consumers to exchange gift cards for Zeevex shopping power.

"We are constantly looking for new ways to create more choice and flexibility for our consumers, and this partnership will make it easy for users to turn retail gift cards into limitless purchasing power for online games and more," said Bruce Bower, CEO of Plastic Jungle. "This partnership will also help online gaming and digital content publishers capture value from the more than $100 billion gift card industry."

U.S. Bank announced that it has partnered with Plastic Jungleto enable FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature cardholders to easily and safely exchange select merchants' gift cards for highly valued FlexPoints, reward points that can be redeemed for travel, merchandise and more.

“We’re continually seeking innovative ways for our FlexPerks cardholders to earn FlexPoints and offering a simple, safe and quick exchange of unredeemed gift cards for valuable FlexPoints is certainly an inventive approach,” said Cliff Cook, chief marketing officer for U.S. Bank Retail Payment Solutions. “With the holidays over and spring break time here, the gift card exchange is timely for cardholders looking to accumulate some extra FlexPoints for travel.”

On the web:

• Girl Scouts Adds Mobile Payments to Drive Cookie Sales - Mobile Commerce Daily
• German P2P Lender Auxmoney Sees Growth - Peer to Peer Lending News
• Here’s How PayPal Is Pitching Mobile Payments to Major Retailers (Slideshow) - AllThingsD
• Facebook Teams up With Bango for Mobile Payments - PCWorld

On the wires:

• Plastic Jungle and InComm Announce Strategic Gift Card Partnership
• Ceridian Introduces Virtual Terminal Enabling Web-based Transactions
• New Aite Group Report on Big Four U.S. Payment Card Networks
• Heartland Handles Nearly 44,000 Transactions as Official Concessions Processor of Super Bowl
• Computop Paygate 5.0 To Expand Support for International Payments

ChargeSmart, an online consumer bill payment portal, and Plastic Jungle, a online gift card exchange, have announced a partnership to enable customers to use unredeemed gift cards to make payments on utility, car and mortgage bills.

“Utility, car and mortgage bills have to be paid, so every dollar applied from these gift cards puts real money in the pockets of our customers,” said Bruce Bower, CEO of Plastic Jungle. “Our joint solution with ChargeSmart will get gift cards out of American sock drawers and provide a valuable, seamless and instant way to reduce these non-discretionary expenses.”

Plastic Jungle and Offerpal Media have announced an agreement to "allow consumers to convert unused and partially redeemed gift cards into a payment method for virtual currencies. Through this agreement, consumers will be able to exchange gift cards for purchasing power within thousands of the Web’s top online games, virtual worlds and social networks, tapping the estimated $30 billion unredeemed gift card economy." READ MORE »