Mobile Payments

Most cellphone and tablet users can purchase digital goods and charge them to their monthly bill or prepaid phone account, but buyers may not get the protections they need if something goes wrong with the transaction, a new report says. According to an analysis by Consumers Union, the protections that consumers receive vary depending on their wireless carrier's policies and what's in their cellphone contract. "We found that consumer rights can vary widely between wireless carriers, and the protections carriers claim to provide are often nowhere to be found in consumer contracts," said Michelle Jun, senior attorney for Consumers Union, the nonprofit advocacy branch of Consumer Reports.

SAN FRANCISCO - Square came in handy for Camilla Barry in accepting payments at her bed-and-breakfast in the Northern California town of Rumsey - until a guest disputed a room charge in May. That's when Barry discovered that Square Inc., which enables merchants to accept credit cards using a smartphone or a tablet, doesn't take phone calls from its customers. Callers are greeted with an automated message, directing them to an online help center or to email their questions, and then they are disconnected.

This week, Dunkin' Donuts released a new app that lets you pay for doughnuts with your iPhone, iPod touch or Android smartphone.  I'm not sure anyone in America needs the act of buying doughnuts to be easier -- but that's not Dunkin' Donuts' problem. The Dunkin' app works like the Starbucks mobile payment app. Download it from Google Play or the App Store, then load it up with money. The card supports American Express, Visa, Mastercard, Discover and PayPal. The next time you need a doughnut fix, you can hand the cashier your mobile device to be scanned rather than using cold hard cash or a credit card.

Apple Inc. agreed to refund customers $32.5 million to settle a complaint over mobile phone apps bought by children, prompting consumer advocates to call for a broader crackdown against deceptive practices by big wireless companies. "This is a warning shot to the whole industry," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "This is not just about Apple. This is part of a comprehensive investigation of the entire mobile industry. " On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Apple would make changes to the way it notifies parents about so-called in-app mobile purchases as well as pay at least $32.5 million in customer refunds.

Mobile payments company Payvia announced Monday that it had acquired Mogreet, a Venice mobile marketing start-up. Payvia, based in L.A., said the deal would create a simplified all-in-one platform that enables companies to target consumers and provide them with a way to buy goods directly from their mobile devices. The company is also hoping to decrease the high rate of shopping cart abandonment - roughly 97% - that occurs on mobile devices. "Our clients have told us they also need a simpler way to link targeted mobile transactions to their marketing campaigns," said Darcy Wedd, chief executive of Payvia.

PayPal recently made a significant digital purchase of its own. The mobile-payment service provider, which is owned by eBay, acquired card.io, a San Francisco start-up that enables users to use a smartphone camera to scan in their credit card information, according to a company blog post on Tuesday. The two companies first connected while working on integrating the card.io technology into the PayPal Here app, according to the PayPal blog post . "While working with them, we were simply blown away by the creativity and drive of their employees," wrote Hill Ferguson, PayPal vice president of global product.

It's clear that many of us soon will be paying for stuff at the store with our smartphones. Wal-Mart, Target and a bunch of other retailers are the latest to jump aboard the mobile-payments express train. But is it safe? Doesn't look like it, at least not yet. A group of 14 merchants has unveiled a joint venture for mobile payments to compete with Google Wallet and other providers of such services. The group includes Wal-Mart, Best Buy and 7-Eleven, and they're calling their service Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX. Billions of dollars in development cash is being thrown at so-called digital wallets, which banks and tech firms believe represent the future of shopping.

Visa Inc. is lending its clout — and some cash — to mobile payments company Square, bolstering prospects for the San Francisco start-up. The credit card giant said Wednesday that it made a strategic investment in Square, which will also include one of its executives joining the company's advisory board. Square declined to comment on the terms. A person familiar with the deal said it was in the "single-digit millions. " The investment was the latest in a move by Visa to evaluate "new technologies and invests in payment innovations that can enable more businesses to accept Visa," said John Partridge, president of the Foster City, Calif., company.

With more shoppers wielding smartphones instead of credit cards and cash to pay for purchases, some of the nation's largest retailers and restaurants are trying to wrest control of the fast-emerging mobile-payment industry away from technology firms. More than a dozen merchants, includingWal-Mart Stores Inc.,Target Corp.,Best Buy Co.andSears Holdings Corp., said Wednesday that they were teaming up to develop their own walletless platform, including an app, that will enable tech-savvy customers to quickly pay for goods with their smartphones.

California is applying money-transfer laws to high-tech start-ups and others in the business of moving funds, subjecting them to the same strict regulations and heavy scrutiny as financial service companies. And that has some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs crying foul. The regulations, they say, are hobbling their ability to develop new Internet technologies that, like PayPal Inc. and Square Inc., make fast, secure payments with smartphones and tablets. FaceCash, a Palo Alto company that developed a mobile payment system using facial-recognition software, has sued the state in federal court on claims that licensing requirements discriminate against the company and hinder interstate commerce.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has launched his next act : a mobile app called Jelly. Like his fellow Twitter founders, Stone isn't the least bit interested in taking early retirement. Jack Dorsey is running mobile payments start-up Square, and Evan Williams is building the publishing platform Medium. Jelly is a new app for iOS and Android with which people ask and answer questions with images. They can ask the questions of people who are in their existing social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, or people they know outside of those social networks.

SAN FRANCISCO - Even as Twitter prepares for a hotly anticipated initial public offering, its co-founder Jack Dorsey already is about to debut a second act. His start-up Square, one of the fastest-growing young companies by revenue and one of the most buzzed about in high-tech, has taken what is widely seen as a step toward its own IPO. On Wednesday, the mobile payment service announced that former Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer David...

Forget ka-ching. Its all tap-tap these days. Restaurants and shop owners fed up with antiquated cash registers and expensive credit card terminals are switching to cheaper devices that plug into smartphones and tablets. And companies such as PayPal, Square Inc. and Groupon Inc. are rushing to meet them, developing sleeker stands to mount tablets running their software or hooking up with existing systems. The shift is happening as mobile devices permeate many facets of consumers' lives, including the way they shop and pay for everyday items.

Mobile payments company Payvia Inc. has acquired Mogreet, a Venice mobile marketing start-up. The companies declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal. The Mogreet team will join Los Angeles company Payvia, and Mogreet founder and Chief Executive James Citron will become Payvia's chief marketing officer. The combined company will have about 150 employees, most of them in L.A. Payvia offers direct carrier-billed mobile payments, meaning customers who use Payvia to buy an item from their mobile devices see the charge directly on their phone bills, eliminating the need to type in a credit card number for a purchase.

Mobile payments company Payvia announced Monday that it had acquired Mogreet, a Venice mobile marketing start-up. Payvia, based in L.A., said the deal would create a simplified all-in-one platform that enables companies to target consumers and provide them with a way to buy goods directly from their mobile devices. The company is also hoping to decrease the high rate of shopping cart abandonment - roughly 97% - that occurs on mobile devices. "Our clients have told us they also need a simpler way to link targeted mobile transactions to their marketing campaigns," said Darcy Wedd, chief executive of Payvia.

California is applying money-transfer laws to high-tech start-ups and others in the business of moving funds, subjecting them to the same strict regulations and heavy scrutiny as financial service companies. And that has some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs crying foul. The regulations, they say, are hobbling their ability to develop new Internet technologies that, like PayPal Inc. and Square Inc., make fast, secure payments with smartphones and tablets. FaceCash, a Palo Alto company that developed a mobile payment system using facial-recognition software, has sued the state in federal court on claims that licensing requirements discriminate against the company and hinder interstate commerce.

WASHINGTON - When Abraham Lincoln allowed the Treasury to print money for the first time in the depths of the Civil War, it was a major innovation born of a pressing reality. The Union was broke. Now, 150 years later, in admittedly less dire circumstances, Congress is preparing itself for the next big thing when it comes to money - a future in which payments are made with a wand-like wave of a phone rather than the exchange of wrinkled pieces of paper. "We are, I think, on a precipice of some fundamental change in the way money is exchanged between consumers and businesses," Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)

Paying for a shopping spree by waving a smart phone may be more exciting than swiping a credit card, but according to Consumers Union, it might not be as safe. The nonprofit testing and information organization, which publishes Consumer Reports, called on regulators Tuesday to implement protective standards on mobile payments. Federal law currently shields credit or debit card holders from many charges associated with lost, stolen or misused cards. But without industry-wide rules for "digital wallet" providers, consumers could risk losing money through fraud, merchant disputes or processing mistakes, the group said.

When Microsoft Corp. announced recently that it was starting a big push to grow its market in Africa, it cited the continent's big growth opportunities, calling Africa a "game changer in the global economy. " Similarly, IBM Corp., Google Inc., Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and other tech companies in recent years also have expanded their presence in Africa. As the growth of tech hardware, software or services flattens or declines in mature markets such as the U.S. and Western Europe, and markets in China, India and Russia grow increasingly competitive, many of the largest tech companies are looking to Africa.

SAN FRANCISCO - If only all purchases were this quick and easy. Jack Dorsey picked up a handful of artisan-brewed sodas at the Fizzary, a soda shop in San Francisco's Mission District. "I'm Jack," he told the shopkeeper behind the counter who charged the sodas to Dorsey's credit card by tapping on Dorsey's photograph that had popped up on an iPad behind the counter. In seconds, Dorsey's iPhone 5 vibrated in the pocket of his black leather jacket to let him know that the transaction was complete.