This Week In Credit Card News: Paying With Your Face; A Credit Card Bonus Worth $975 In Points

A new way to pay has arrived in Los Angeles: your face. As contactless payments rise in popularity during the pandemic, a Pasadena company called PopID is rolling out the nation’s first payment system based on facial recognition at a smattering of restaurants. A customer signs up on their phone, takes a selfie and adds cash to their Pop Pay account from a credit card or bank account. When it comes time to pay for their meal, they look into the camera of a PopID tablet or kiosk, the cashier verifies their name, and money is withdrawn from the account. [The Los Angeles Times]

Earn 65,000 Bonus Points With New Sign-Up Bonus Offers On These Southwest Credit Cards

Three Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Cards—the Premier, Plus and Priority cards—now all have the same sign-up bonus offer. Earn 65,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening. The Points Guy values Southwest points at 1.5 cents each, which makes this bonus worth $975 for only a $2,000 spending requirement. A compelling offer, especially compared to the previous 40,000 points offer, worth $600. [The Points Guy]

Banks Are Putting Lower Limits On New Credit Cards

U.S. credit card lenders are beginning to pull back on the business even as consumers keep up with their bills during the coronavirus pandemic. Total credit on new accounts slumped 8.3% in the second quarter from a year earlier, to $78 billion, the first decline in more than two years, according to TransUnion
TRU
. The average credit line issued for new accounts fell 9% to $5,257, with declines across all tiers of borrower riskiness. [Bloomberg]

Chase Offers Big Grocery Perk For New Credit Card Customers

The Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Unlimited cards have a new offer you may want to check out. As an add-on to the existing $200 welcome bonus that comes with each card, Chase has upped the ante with a grocery store cash back offer that could be worth up to $600. That’s a total of $800 in potential rewards just for signing up and spending with the card for a year. [Clark.com]

Stimulus Check Update: What’s Covered under Trump’s Executive Actions 

Last week, Congress was still on the fence about the second stimulus payment. Republicans pushed for the HEALS Act, Democrats pushed for the HEROES Act, and both the House and Senate started their one-month recess. The status of the stimulus check was left in limbo until President Trump issued one executive order and three memorandums covering elements of the HEALS and HEROES Acts. Here is what these actions include. [LowCards.com]

Inside Capital One’s New Partnership With Microsoft To Fight Fraud

The partnership between the two companies allows Microsoft and Capital One to use their data to determine if a transaction is legitimate, which has a few major benefits. First, better fraud detection means less fraud and loss. But the upside is deeper. For a merchant like Microsoft, it means that a transaction is more likely to go through. For Capital One, it means fewer instances of someone paying with a different card. And for a credit card user, not getting your legitimate transaction declined because of a false positive means a better experience. [Yahoo Finance]

Taco Bell Unveils Go Mobile Restaurant Design

In a move that bolsters the drive-thru and digital experience for diners, Taco Bell has unveiled a new “Taco Bell Go Mobile” store concept. The chain said the eatery is especially created for diners to place their orders ahead of time via its mobile app and “enjoy the Taco Bell experience in a frictionless way.” The concept’s restaurants come with multiple digital innovations in 1,325 square feet in comparison to the average 2,500 square-foot size of the average eatery in the chain. They also have dual drive-thru lanes, including a “priority pick-up lane” for diners who place their orders via the chain’s app. [PYMNTS]

Google Opens The Door To Mass Cryptocurrency Adoption

Over the last five months, the cryptocurrency market has experienced a dramatic recovery, catapulting most cryptocurrencies to their highest value so far in 2020. During this time, a number of online payment behemoths have been ramping up their presence in the space, helping to make cryptocurrency investments more accessible than ever before. Google is arguably the biggest player to enter the mix, after recently partnering with multiple prominent blockchain companies to add Google Pay as a payment method for cryptocurrency purchases. [Benzinga]

What Is The Cost Of A Data Breach?

The average cost of a data breach has declined by 1.5% year-over-year, costing companies $3.86 million per incident, according to IBM
IBM
’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report. The analysis found that customer data was by far the most-commonly compromised type of record with 80% of breached organizations saying that customer PII was affected. The average cost per lost or stolen record was $146 across all data breaches. [We Live Security]

TransferWise Deepens Mastercard Tie For Global Expansion

Mastercard and TransferWise have extended their global partnership enabling the issuance of cards in any market where the credit card giant is operational and the international payments firm is licensed. TransferWise first issued a Mastercard-enabled card in 2018 for its European customers and is also offering the same services in the United States, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. With this current partnership expansion, it has paved its way to enter almost all countries. [Finance Magnates]

Worried About Mobile Banking Security? Follow These Best Practices

More bank customers discovered they like the convenience of mobile banking as branches temporarily closed during the pandemic, and evidence suggests the behavior stands to stick. A survey released in mid-May by FIS
FIS
 found that 31% of banked respondents intend to do more online and mobile banking in the future. But is this a safe way to conduct bank business? [Bankrate]

Mastercard, AptPay Partner To Support Faster Cash Disbursement For Businesses

Mastercard and Canadian fintech AptPay have joined forces to accelerate the process of cash disbursement for businesses across different sectors. This will be done by integrating the AptPay platform with the Mastercard Send push payments platform, which enables banks and businesses to push money to a recipient with only their debit card number. The initiative will benefit businesses across insurance, gaming and entertainment, gig, rebate, as well as government program industries. [Verdict]