Perspectives: Ben Jackson
Gyft Gives Smartphone Users a Mobile Management Tool for Gift Cards
by: Ben Jackson, Mercator Advisory Group
5/14/2013
Editor’s note This is the first in a series of Perspectives from Prepaid Senior Analyst Ben Jackson testing different prepaid mobile applications. Start up company Gyft is betting the smartphone can make gift cards more valuable for retailers and cardholders.... Read More >
Card Manufacturer Finds Simpler Cards, but More Outlets in Review of Gift Card Trends
by: Ben Jackson
5/2/2013
During the holiday season, more merchants hosted card malls, but the cards in those malls were simpler than in years past.Travel Tags Inc., a card manufacturer and printer based in Inver Grove Heights, Minn., visited 108 unique merchants in the... Read More >
People Do Not Leave Their Wallets Before Their Phones
by: Ben Jackson
4/26/2013
If I had a nickel for every time I heard that a person will leave their wallet at home before they leave their phone, then I might have enough to fix the damage done from grinding my teeth every time... Read More >
Preliminary Data Show Holiday Gift Card Activations Up More Than 15% In 2012
by: Ben Jackson
4/24/2013
Closed loop gift card activations in November and December 2012 were up 15% compared with the 2011 holiday season, according to preliminary aggregate data provided by payments processor Vantiv.Based on information from Mercator’s closed loop card benchmark combined with aggregated... Read More >
Field Testing Payments Apps – Where the Mobile Meets the Card
by: Ben Jackson
4/22/2013
Over the next few weeks, Mercator Advisory Group will test and report on a number of payments applications companies have put out as a way to take payments mobile or put them online. Many of these products convert a plastic... Read More >
What is Bitcoin Really Up To?
by: Ben Jackson
4/18/2013
The payments industry, government agencies, and the media have all been intrigued by bitcoin because it purports to be a digital currency that enables anonymous transactions. Leaving aside the issues of whether anonymity is truly achievable online and the potential... Read More >
Nintendo Prepaid Cards Show Possibilities For Using Cards To Engage Customers
by: Ben Jackson
4/4/2013
Game maker Nintendo is releasing new prepaid cards in Japan that show how the cards themselves can become a way to interact with customers by providing value. According to the tech site ubergizmo.com, Nintendo plans to sell a card that... Read More >
American Express Adds FIDC Insurance to Bluebird Cards
by: Ben Jackson
3/27/2013
American Express and Walmart announced on Tuesday that Bluebird accounts will be eligible for insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and that Bluebird customers can order Bluebird checks to use to pay bills or make purchases. From the press... Read More >
Which Agency Regulates Prepaid Cards?
by: Ben Jackson
2/4/2013
Which agency regulates prepaid cards? At the American Conference Institute’s Seventh National Forum on Prepaid Compliance this week I have learned the answer.All of them The conference kicked off with a Federal Regulatory panel that included the Federal Trade Commission,... Read More >
Gift Cards Are NOT a Dying Trend
by: Ben Jackson
1/22/2013
A recent article on CNBC.com entitled “Why Gift Cards May Be Dying Trend” suggests consumers are buying fewer gift cards and retailers are selling fewer gift cards, despite ample evidence to the contrary. It provides as evidence lower mall card sales,... Read More >
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