Payments

Two Polish online payment systems, Dotpay and eCard, will join forces and expand in Central and Eastern Europe. The two companies are part of MCI.EuroVentures' fund portfolio and are specialized in online electronic payments. The company established as a result of their integration wants to become the market leader in Poland.

Paymill, the German payment provider that filed for preliminary insolvency two months ago, has been acquired by Swiss payment service provider Klik & Pay. It seems like Paymill, which is seen as the German answer to US payment service Stripe, has been saved by the Swiss company and can now live on.

Ecommerce software provider ePages launched Pay with Amazon for its UK and German based online shop owners. This integration allows the merchants' customers to check out with payment and shipping information stored in their Amazon account, while remaining within an ePages-powered shop throughout the checkout process.

PayPal has ceased operations in Turkey after the company was unable to get a new license from Turkish financial regulator BDDK. A new Turkish policy requires IT systems to be housed within the country, but that's something PayPal doesn't follow.

Online payment method iDeal from the Netherlands registered the billionth transaction that happened via its system. The milestone was reached during King's Day in the Netherlands, the national holiday that marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander. The online payment system has a market share of 56 percent and is being used since 2005.

Paydirekt, the online payment service of the German banks, wants to expand its service in Europe. The planned expansion isn't something that will happen very soon, but in the medium term the payment solution, which started as a PayPal rival, should be available for customers outside of Germany.

Paymill, a one-stop solution which enables merchants to easily accept credit and debit cards, announced it made the decision to go for a preliminary insolvency in self-administration. With this decision, the German online payment provider hopes to bring the merger and acquisition negotiations to a successful result.

EKM, the largest hosted ecommerce provider in the UK, has announced it is partnering with Swedish payments company Klarna. Starting today, all new merchants who sign up for a store with EKM will be offered a store and payment solution powered by EKM and Klarna. The new store will have Klarna's checkout pre-installed and ready to go.

SecurionPay, a fintech company from Switzerland, has launched its new website and wants to further revolutionize the way small businesses approach online payments. By offering for example a drag-and-drop builder to implement payment buttons, SecurionPay wants to ensure merchants can implement payment methods on their ecommerce websites quick and easy.

When you are running an ecommerce website in the Netherlands, you can't avoid offering iDeal. For years, this local payment method is the most popular online payment method in the Netherlands. A new graphic shows the other popular options you should offer as an online retailer.

It seems like raising the limit on how much people can spend using contactless pay was a good choice. Millions of pounds have been spent by Britons swiping their card or mobile device, since the limit went up from from £20 to £30 in September last year.

For years, many consumers in Germany have used purchase on account when they went online shopping. But this payment method is losing popularity. When asked about the five payment methods they prefer to use, nearly 40 percent of German consumers ranked purchase on account in the first place. But in 2014, it was one in two consumers who preferred this payment method.

Android Pay is said to be launched in the United Kingdom at the end of March. With this payment system, Google wants to encourage Android users to use their device for contactless payments. It will need to compete with the contactless payment systems of mobile OS rivals Apple and Samsung, but also with mobile payment solutions like Barclaycard bPay, EE Cash on Tap and V.Me.

The German website Kreditkarte.net has published a comprehensive overview of the 60 payment service providers that are active on the German market. Their services are placed side by side, so you can compare them easily. See what every PSP cost, what payment methods they offer, if they can be used with your shopping cart software and if they offer fraud prevention.

Visa will make its online payment service Visa Checkout available to merchants and consumers in the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Poland and Spain this year. With Visa Checkout, users have the security and convenience of the Visa card, but then in the digital world.