mobile payments

When money and friendship mix, the results can get awkward: You front a friend some cash, and then what? Venmo, an app that helps you exchange money through mobile devices, is designed to remove that awkwardness and replace it with something social, and even fun.

Are you a conservative, pays-with-cash sort of consumer or a smartphone-wielding early adopter? As it turns out, what's in your wallet may say more about you than you think.

What could be easier than paying for something with a wave of your phone? Not much. But there are prices to be paid for the frictionless ease of mobile payments, and they aren't all obvious.

There's a new daily deals player, and it's a company that's near and dear to your virtual pocketbook. And if you think the online coupons sector is too saturated for a fresh entry to make a dent, you're ignoring a few important things about PayPal.

The volume of card purchases made on Visa branded products globally has risen from around $2.1 trillion in 2006 to $3.1 trillion in 2010, and with strong first-quarter earnings, further growth in payment volume, and a strong foothold in the mobile transaction business, Trefis expects healthy growth ahead.

Buying something by simply waving a smart phone in front of a scanner is becoming the new and popular way to shop, but buying a delivery pizza, cup of coffee, or a number of other things now that Amazon.com and others want in on the trend, could cause shoppers to spend more than they would without...

Many major companies are hoping that consumers will use their smartphones as a credit or debit card, and Google may be preparing to join in with its Android phones. But is the trend, which has grown popular in Japan, finally ready to take off in the U.S.?

Less than a decade ago, environmentalists were labeled "tree huggers," or called "granola" and "crunchy." Today, "being green" is no longer on the fringe -- it's a cultural norm. Recycling is a standard practice (mandatory in many places). Martha Stewart just announced her plans to launch a line...

Starbucks (SBUX) today announced that customers in U.S. stores will be able to pay for purchases using their smartphones. Customers will be able to make purchases by downloading the Starbucks Card Mobile App to their phone and scanning an on-screen barcode at a scanning device in the store,...

Square makes it much easier for even the smallest retailers to accept credit cards: The mobile payment firm offers easy to use hardware that plugs right into iPhones or Android devices. But at least part of its new high price tag probably derives from the fact that its founder, Jack Dorsey, also co-founded Twitter.