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Verizon Introduces A Rewards Card; Online Banking Spikes During Pandemic

Verizon Launches No-Annual-Fee Visa Card with Competitive Rewards on Groceries, Gas and Dining

Verizon and Synchrony have partnered to launch the new Verizon Visa Card, exclusively available to Verizon wireless customers. The Verizon Visa Card offers Verizon customers the chance to earn generous rewards and redeem them to offset their monthly bill or a new smartphone, all at no annual fee. Cardholders earn 4% back on gas and groceries, 3% back on dining, 2% back on Verizon purchases and 1% back on everything else. [CNBC]

Online Banking Usage Spikes During Pandemic

A new report shows a 200% jump in new mobile banking registrations in early April, and mobile banking traffic rose 85% over the same period. According to American Banker, 72% of customers at the four largest U.S. banks—JP Morgan Chase
JPM
, Bank of Americ
BAC
a, Wells Fargo
WFC
, and Citi
C
group—used mobile banking apps in April, up 10 percentage points from April 2019. [Spokane Journal]

An Alarming Number of People Are Complaining About Their Citi Credit Card Accounts

An alarming number of credit card borrowers hurt by the coronavirus recession are complaining that Citibank is treating them unfairly. Citi accounted for nearly 37% of pandemic-related complaints to regulators about credit cards between March 16 and May 20, four times as much as the next-closest bank. Borrowers complained about several aspects from inflexible late fees and interest charges, to refusals to provide assistance for those with financial hardships. [CNN]

Paper or Plastic? Casinos Explore Mobile Payment Options

Playing at the slot machines of a casino usually involves withdrawing cash, entering it into the machine, receiving slips after cashing out, and re-entering those slips at each machine. At the end of your run, you take those final slips to a counter or a kiosk and get your money in bills and coins. But using Apple
AAPL
Pay or something similar to play? And then cash out on your phone? That’s among a bevy of options gaming officials have in mind for casinos to consider implementing to enhance patrons’ experiences. [Daily Independent]

Stimulus Checks: Prepaid Debit Cards Come with Fees and Privacy Strings Attached

The stimulus checks directed by the CARES Act are aimed at helping American families weather the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. But the 4 million Americans who received their payments on prepaid debit cards may be struggling with additional headaches, such as the card’s fees for withdrawing cash and the requirement to share their personal data. [CBS News]

Some Bank of America Cardholders Now Get New Perks

Bank of America Travel Rewards points typically can only be redeemed for a statement credit to pay for flights, hotels, vacation packages, cruises, rental cars or baggage fees. One point is equal to one cent. However, cardholders can now also use these points toward grocery, dining, and takeout through the end of the year. [The Points Guy]

Wirecard Files For Insolvency After Revealing Accounting Hole

Battered German fintech company Wirecard AG has filed for insolvency proceedings, days after revealing that more than $2 billion in cash missing from its balance sheet probably didn’t exist. Wirecard is the first insolvent company in the DAX 30, Germany’s premier stock-market index. [The Wall Street Journal]

Galileo Rolls Out Fast Debit Card Payments for Gig Workers

Galileo is rolling out a payment technology for gig economy, fintech, e-commerce and other companies that pay contract workers called Galileo Instant. The service allows companies to create instant debit card payment programs within about 14 days. The technology now has more than 100 companies lined up to use the service. [Mobile Payments Today]

Mastercard Partners with Installment Payment Company Splitit

Splitit, an international payments company, announced a multi-year deal with Mastercard to offer its installment payments system. Splitit allows customers to pay for purchases with an existing debit or credit card by splitting the cost into interest and fee-free monthly payments. Splitit will integrate with Mastercard’s technology to provide its services at checkout both in stores and online. [Retail Dive]

Meet Karat, Creating the Credit Card for Influencers and Creators

What the Karat Black Card does is ask for a creator or influencer’s social media handle, then assesses their financials using Plaid. With a social media handle, Karat can evaluate a creator’s reach, engagement, type of content and platform, and other metrics. It uses that combined with financial information to determine credit limits. [Crunch Base]

Unifimoney to Use Ocean-Bound Plastic for Contactless Cards

Unifimoney Inc. will use ocean-bound plastic for their Visa cards. Over 6.4 billion payment cards are made globally each year. The contactless cards, named Second Wave, are EMV compliant and feature a core made with recovered ocean-bound plastic. For every one million Second Wave payment cards produced, its estimated that more than one ton of plastic will be diverted from entering the world’s oceans, waterways, and shorelines. [Waste 360]

Nearly Half of Consumers Don’t Know Contactless Payment Symbol on Credit, Debit Cards

new survey from CompareCards found nearly half of all consumers couldn’t recognize the contactless payment symbol on a credit or debit card. However, 45% of cardholders said they had made a contactless payment with a credit card or debit card at some time in the past. [The Mountaineer]

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