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Explains that the smart card is increasingly being held and used by consumers in the UK, particularly in its electronic purse or loyalty card capacity. The smart card is a plastic card that carries an embedded computer chip with memory and interactive capabilities. Describes the current major payment options open to consumers, and accepted by retailers, with a review of the costs and benefits of each payment option. Considers the electronic purse pilot of Mondex as a new payment option and looks at the issues facing retailers with the introduction of smart cards. Concludes that acceptance of the smart card as a new payment option depends heavily on retailers’ attitudes and these will be formed by the so‐far unquantified balance of costs and benefits that will accompany the introduction of the smart card.

After more than three decades of research and legal cases pursued by the European Commission (EC) and national regulators, interchange fees for four-party consumer card transactions are capped on December 9, 2015 across the European Union (EU). Since then, the development of card scheme fees has been a raising concern for merchants. Due to their nature, these fees have not been dealt with in research or covered by the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR). This chapter aims to assess the recent development of card scheme fees within four-party card payment networks by relying on survey data obtained from 104 merchants across the EU. Findings show that for half of the merchant population card scheme fees have increased since the regulation. Further concerns related to transparency of fees, pass-through of savings to retailers and subsequently consumers, and the development of commercial cards are discussed. In light of the EC's scheduled review of the impacts of the policy intervention in 2019 (Article 17 of the IFR), this chapter evaluates alternative arrangements for the setting of card scheme fees with a focus on the legal basis for a potential regulation. Findings shall provide a ground for further interaction between academics, practitioners, and policymakers.

For central banks who study the use of cash, acceptance of card payments is an important factor. Surveys to measure levels of card acceptance and the costs of payments can be complicated and expensive. In this paper, we exploit a novel data set from Hungary to see the effect of stratified random sampling on estimates of payment card acceptance and usage. Using the Online Cashier Registry, a database linking the universe of merchant cash registers in Hungary, we create merchant and transaction level data sets. We compare county (geographic), industry and store size stratifications to simulate the usual stratification criteria for merchant surveys and see the effect on estimates of card acceptance for different sample sizes. Further, we estimate logistic regression models of card acceptance/usage to see how stratification biases estimates of key determinants of card acceptance/usage.

A convenient payment system is increasingly recognized as an asset of tourism destinations. By using data on payments with cards issued in foreign countries, together with other monthly tourism flow variables, the authors assess the importance of card payments to identify seasonality in inbound tourism in Portugal.

The authors compute seasonality measures using Portuguese data on card payments from 2003 to 2019, together with data on nights spent and the Balance of Payments travel credit. The authors also assess seasonal behaviour in the timespan of the different tourism strategic plans in place during this period.

Card payments grew at a faster pace than the other inbound tourism variables and show a seasonal pattern similar to the other variables. Seasonality decreases when variables measured in quantities are considered (nights spent and number of card transactions). However, when the authors use value variables (Balance of Payments travel credit and value of card transactions), seasonality in 2019 is higher than in 2003.

The widespread use of digital payments makes card payment information an even better proxy of tourism activity and since it is available in a short time-span it has informational potential for tourism stakeholders and for researchers in this field.

The authors study the seasonal behaviour of foreign card payments along with other international tourism flow variables. The authors’ results highlight the informational potential of card payment data and the importance of electronic payment infrastructure for tourist activity.

Considers distribution in the financial services. Financial services providers face a wide choice in the combinations of channels that they can employ to market their products. Asserts that plastic cards are increasingly replacing paper cheques and credits and have become a key channel of distribution for the money transmission services. Continues by reviewing the possible advantages of chip‐based plastic payment cards. Discusses how they would allow all the different payment functions to be held on one piece of plastic and, therefore, provide complete financial management for the cardholder. Considers the adoption of plastic cards in the card centric countries of Japan and the UK.

Alternative payment means have been expanding rapidly in recent years. The need to identify the segments of customers that are targetable for both financial and nonfinancial institutions is growing. The purpose of this paper is to use two different methods, discriminant analysis and decision trees, in order to compare the effectiveness of the two methods for segmentation and identify critical consumer characteristics which determine behavior and preference in relation to the use of payment means.

Using data from 321 bank customers, decision tree and discriminant analysis methods are used, first to test the same set of variables differentiating the customers and then to compare the respective results and prediction ability of the two methods.

Results show that discriminant analysis has a better model fit and segments the customers in a more effective way than the decision tree method. In addition, each method shows different variables to differentiate the customer groups.

The findings are limited to the sector and country of the study, as well as the convenience sample that has been used.

Suggestions for financial managers to better understand their customers’ behavior and target the right group are discussed.

This is the first attempt to compare decision trees and discriminant analysis as alternative segmentation methods for payment means.

The cashless society, where clumsy and expensive‐to‐handle coins and notes are replaced by efficient electronic payments initiated by various types of plastic cards is a tantalizing prospect for the twenty‐first century. Some of the interested parties stand to gain more than others if the cashless society becomes a reality. Outlines the rationale of those who are keen to promote the cashless society and the implications for marketeers charged with winning consumer acceptance for payment by plastic card. Commencing with a European‐wide view of the European plastic card market, focuses on recent developments within the UK, one of Europe′s leading countries in the use of plastic cards as a means of payment. The plastic card payment product is analysed under the three headings of pay later, pay now and pay before and a view is offered as to the future prospects for each type of plastic card in contributing to the development of the cashless society.

This study analyzes how cultural and social values shape specific attitudes toward credit cards and indebtedness and consumption behavior.

The study uses a panel dataset for a selection of European Union countries from 2003 to 2016. The relation between credit card use and social and cultural attitudes is constructed by controlling for past habits in payment behavior and cross-substitution with alternative payment instruments by employing a dynamic panel data analysis based on the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator.

The total value of credit card payments positively correlated with values emphasizing risk-taking attitudes. When analyzing the propensity of using these instruments for larger purchases, the level of trust is the most relevant predictor. However, the results seemed region-specific with some variables correlating consumption behavior with credit card usage depending on the political and the economic background of the country. Moreover, risk-taking attitudes prevail when they are related to the extent to which countries rely on cash as a preferred payment instrument. Also, credit card usage is mainly explained by past habits and the economic context.

The model expands on previous credit card transaction research by including an additional set of cultural values able to account for the complex nature of payment instruments and their effects on indebtedness and consumption behavior.

This study analyzes the role of information disclosure in influencing credit card repayments by focusing on three intervention methods for improving repayment decisions among credit cardholders.

This study uses the survey method to collect data. Four questionnaires are designed to identify which types of disclosure elicit better repayment decisions among credit cardholders. The participants were approached using the mall intercept method, and a total of 1,775 responses were obtained.

Estimations using means comparison tests show that not providing minimum payment information improves repayments. The expected benefits are not delivered by the provision of higher minimum payment information or additional information that highlights the negative effects of making the minimum repayment only. Further analysis using logit estimation reconfirms the benefit of not providing minimum payment information. However, when such information is given, low minimum payment information elicits better repayment decisions than high minimum payment information or additional information. Repayment worsens under the additional information condition compared to the high minimum payment condition.

The findings of this study have a bearing on the decisions of policy makers, credit card issuers and consumers.

This paper clarifies the role of information in improving debt repayment decisions.

Reports on research into the payments markets of both Australia and the UK, in the context of the concept of relationship marketing. It compares the evolution of the various types of payment; cash, paper cheques, debit and credit cards and examines the linkages with relationship marketing from both a market‐based approach, to investigate whether data derived from consumer payments can form the basis of a relationship, and from a network‐based approach, to consider how new entrants to the payments market can establish relationships between organisations. Conclusions on this study are then followed by some thoughts on the directions for future research.