Toronto-based Suretap has launched the launch of the suretap prepaid MasterCard. It’s a secure, easy-to-use virtual prepaid card that is now part of and only available through Canada’s leading open digital wallet experience, the suretap wallet.
Toronto-based CIBC reports it has supported the enrollment of tens of thousands of CIBC credit card holders in Visa Checkout since the bank introduced direct client access to the online payment service through its website last fall, the first Canadian bank to do so.
Visa announced the launch of Visa Checkout, a quick and easy payment service that enables consumers throughout the United States, Canada and Australia to pay for goods online, on any device. For consumers and online retailers, Visa Checkout offers an easy and secure way to pay online. Enrolling in Visa Checkout is intuitive and simple, and shoppers can use any Visa debit or credit card or even other branded cards to make purchases from a PC, mobile device or within a mobile app. Once enrolled, shoppers simply provide their username and password to complete the payment process — without ever having to leave the merchant’s website. Visa Checkout replaces the V.me by Visa service, first introduced in 2012. Leading payments card issuers, community banks, and credit unions are all participating in Visa Checkout.
Presented by LoyaltyOne and Visa, the 3rd Annual COLLOQUY Loyalty Awards- loyalty awards decided by members of the loyalty industry- announced its recipients. Among them is American Express, selected by the panel for its “Digital Loyalty Innovation.” American Express won for a suite of digital innovations, including its first mobile redemption service, a loyalty experience for the iPad, barcode scanning and price comparisons. From November 2011 to March 2012, mobile/tablet redeemers increased by 117 percent and point redemption, as a share of overall redemption, rose 300 percent. COLLOQUY launched the awards in 2010 to salute the most innovative loyalty initiatives in the industry and, through its more than 45,000 subscribers- select the winning initiatives across 10 industry categories.
Scotiabank is making available the Visa “payWave” contactless payment feature to its line of credit cards. Visa “payWave” transactions make small purchases faster and easier, reducing the amount of time customers spend at the checkout. Visa payWave is a no-fee enhancement which is now available on select Scotiabank credit cards, including ScotiaGold Passport Visa, Scotia Momentum Visa and SCENE Visa. Scotiabank cardholders will now be able to make secure contactless transactions at Petro-Canada, Rexall Pharma Plus pharmacies, Cineplex Entertainment movie theatres, Jean Coutu, Rabba Fine Foods, M&M Meat Shops, Second Cup, as well as other retailers.
Cineplex Entertainment now offers guests the option to use PayPal when purchasing tickets to a movie or other form of entertainment at Cineplex Entertainment theatres. A PayPal account can be used to purchase tickets from www.Cineplex.com, the Cineplex Mobile Apps, or through its mobile site m.cineplex.com. From February 10-17, 2011, guests who purchase $20 CAD or more in tickets for Cineplex theatres using their PayPal account will receive $10 CAD cash back to their PayPal account. This allows guests to complete transactions using their PayPal account balance, bank account or credit card. When purchasing a ticket for a movie or an event at Cineplex Entertainment theatres, guests can select PayPal as the payment option after they have chosen the show time and entered the quantity of tickets. They are then transferred to PayPal’s secure Web site where they then log in to their PayPal account and confirm the transaction.
With 66% sad to see summer come to a close, 24% would be willing to spend up to $1,000 on a one-week summer extension. While 20% planning to head out of town for a long weekend getaway, 44% intend to spend the long weekend in the city entertaining family and friends or simply relaxing. These findings, according to a new poll from MasterCard “PayPass,” also show 29% disclosed they will miss the hot weather the most, 25% will most miss basking in the extra daylight and 22% will most miss summer activities. Additionally, 65% squeeze the most out of summer by stopping for gas before a road trip while 36% pack on Thursday for a weekend away and 35% stock up on summer supplies so they don’t have to stop to buy them before a long weekend or a weekend away.
Featuring a wide choice of gift cards from more than 40 retailers in 9
categories, Aeroplan has launched its “eStore Gift Card Boutique,”
allowing members to earn miles when they purchase gift cards through the
Aeroplan eStore. With more than 60% of Canadian shoppers planning to
purchase gift cards this holiday season, the Aeroplan “eStore Gift Card
Boutique” members need log-in at www.aeroplan.com/estore, select gifts,
flowers or food categories, make a gift card purchase and earn one
Aeroplan Mile per dollar spent. Until December 15, Aeroplan Members can
earn Bonus Aeroplan Miles when shopping, including 500 Bonus Aeroplan
Miles if members make purchases with two retailers; 750 Bonus Aeroplan
Miles if members make purchases with three retailers; and 1,000 Bonus
Aeroplan Miles if members make purchases with four or more retailers.
Participating retailers include the likes of Banana Republic, Cineplex,
Home Hardware, Starbucks, The Body Shop and many more.
BMO Bank of Montreal, Research In Motion and MasterCard Canada have
partnered to bring mobile payments to BlackBerry smartphones through its
MasterCard “PayPass” ‘tap and go’ contactless payment technology.
Participants will use “PayPass” Mobile Tag-equipped BlackBerry
smartphones to make secure purchases at any of the 8,500 merchant
locations in Canada that accept MasterCard PayPass, integrating the
mobile payment with the device. A confirmation email is subsequently
sent of each transaction sent to the BlackBerry smartphone. The
confirmations include purchase details such as the amount, retailer and
date of transaction while the Mobile Tag contains the chip and antenna
found in a regular PayPass card, with the addition of special material
to reduce interference between the Mobile Tag and the phone to which it
is attached.
MasterCard Canada and partners Citi Cards Canada and Bell Mobility have
completed the first NFC trial of “Mobile PayPass” in Canada, the first
trial that used Bell Mobility’s wireless network, allowing
participants to make purchases using their mobile device at MasterCard
PayPass acceptance locations across Canada. The trial took place at Bell
Mobility’s Creekbank office in Ontario and approximately 75 employees
from Bell, Citi Cards and MasterCard participated. The average
transaction amount during the trial was just under $20. The four-month
closed trial was a major step towards bringing mobile payments to
Canadian mobile phone users.
Coca-Cola Bottling will install MasterCard “PayPass” payment terminals to more vending
machines across Canada, the first national activation of such
technology in the Canadian beverage vending industry. The PayPass payment terminals are being installed on the front of
Coca-Cola vending machines, next to the cash receptacle. With PayPass,
consumers authorize the transactions securely, by simply “tapping” their
PayPass enabled MasterCard card against a PayPass point-of-sale
terminal. No signature is required and traditional magnetic stripe credit cards are also accepted.To date, 400 vending
machines located in major cities across Canada have been equipped with
MasterCard PayPass technology, with a total of 5,000 machines to be
outfitted by 2010.
Staples announced plans to accept MasterCard “PayPass”-enabled
readers and chip card terminals in its 300 Staples Business Depot and Bureau en Gros stores across Canada beginning early next year. At mid-year, there were nearly 37 million “PayPass” cards and devices in use at more than 122,000 merchants worldwide. There are a number of “PayPass” trials and roll-outs currently underway in 25 countries, including Australia, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the U.K. and U.S.