wallet

Visa chief: Fee on digital wallets seems 'appropriate'

Digital wallet operators, like Google, PayPal, and others, should be charged a fee for offering such a service, according to Visa CEO Charlie Scharf.

Speaking at the Barclays Emerging Payments Forum yesterday, Scharf said "it is totally appropriate" for credit card companies to charge digital wallet operators a fee on all transactions, according to Reuters, which was in attendance.

Scharf's comments come after eBay revealed in a February regulatory filing that MasterCard was planning to charge it a fee for its digital wallet service starting in June. The actual amount PayPal pays isn't expected to be … Read more

How e-wallets could be a gold mine for credit card companies

Consumers may one day ditch their plastic credit cards, but that doesn't mean that they'll abandon their credit card companies.

In fact, the move from a leather wallet to a digital one could be a boon for companies like Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express.

Digital wallets, which allow users to store their credit cards, retail loyalty cards, coupons and even tickets in digital form on a mobile device, have been one of the most talked about emerging segments of the mobile market. Everyone from Google to Apple to Microsoft to PayPal to wireless carriers and even retailers … Read more

Take a Leap in May with motion control

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Get ready to control your computer like a Jedi: Leap Motion's controllers are arriving mid-May for $80. Watch the video above to see how users can navigate programs with the wave of a hand or the wiggle of a finger. Developers like Corel and Disney Interactive are releasing apps that work with Leap.

But that's not the only company taking the "touch" out of touch screen. At Mobile World Congress, STMicroelectronics shows how to control a tablet without making contact.

Also in Wednesday's tech news roundup: … Read more

Samsung reveals Passbook rival called Wallet

Samsung is taking its cue from Apple for a new mobile app.

Dubbed Wallet, the app is basically Samsung's version of Apple's Passbook. As described on the app's API page for developers, the app "allows users to store and manage event tickets, boarding passes, membership cards, and coupons all in one place."

The app lets providers integrate their apps with Samsung Wallet so that mobile device users can add their electronic tickets and coupons. Those tickets display bar codes that can then be scanned at terminals. Demoing the app at Mobile World Congress today in … Read more

Crave Ep. 109: The greatest drinking game ever

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This week on Crave, William Shatner has some choice words for J.J. Abrams, and we toss one back in the greatest drinking game ever invented. Cheers! Plus, we dodge a bullet the size of a football field as an asteroid nearly collides with Earth. Phew. … Read more

Sonic Wallets scream, moo, hurl insults when opened

Wallets usually aren't the most exciting accessories. They hold your money and cards in place and pretty much stay quietly out of sight. If you have a Sonic Wallet, however, your wallet will be making a racket every time you open it.

Sonic Wallets come in eight flavors: American flag, baseball, Buddha, drum machine, Jesus, moolah, The Scream, and Shakespearean insults. A small sound device in the Tyvek wallet is triggered on opening. The American flag wallet plays "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "The Star Spangled Banner." The Jesus wallet gives you the sounds of harps and angelic choruses.… Read more

Study: People don't use or understand digital wallets

The digital wallet has been anointed by many as the future of payments. In the present, however, virtual-pay apps remain largely untouched and misunderstood.

Only 51 percent of U.S. consumers are even aware of digital payment providers other than PayPal, and a teeny-tiny percentage of people -- 12 percent spanning all brands -- have actually used applications such as Google Wallet, MasterCard PayPass Wallet, or Square Wallet, according to a new study from analytics firm ComScore.

ComScore analyzed data from a panel of 1 million U.S. consumers and two separate surveys of U.S. Internet users in November … Read more

PayPal's in-store payment partners grow to 23 retailers

Increasingly bringing its service offline, PayPal announced today that it has nearly doubled its brick-and-mortar store lineup to 23 retailers that now accept its payment service.

"Delivering valuable digital and mobile payments is alive and thriving, and consumers all over the U.S. will now start seeing PayPal more where they shop every day, including the grocery store and at the gas pump," PayPal's vice president of retail services Don Kingsborough said in a statement. "No bells, whistles or buzzes -- just technology that works and gets the most from your money."

Throughout the U.… Read more

How to send a Square gift card

The ability send and process gift cards were recently added by Square as an additional service for its merchants. The process is simple, but requires you to download and install the Square Wallet app (iOS, Android) on your smartphone.

Once you have Square Wallet installed you'll need to set up an account, complete with your payment information. You can then find a local store listed in Square Wallet, such as a coffee shop or bookstore, open the respective card for that business, and then tap "Send Gift Card." Enter the recipient's information, select an amount and … Read more