PayPal buys payments startup iZettle for $2.2 billion

SAN FRANCISCO - PayPal on Thursday announced a deal to buy Swedish online commerce startup iZettle for $2.2 billion, a deal that came as the young company was poised for a stock market debut.

US-based PayPal, a unit of eBay, said that its biggest acquisition to date would strengthen its platform for handling payment transactions at small businesses, particularly in Europe and Latin America.

"Small businesses are the engine of the global economy and we are continuing to expand our platform to help them compete and win online, in-store and via mobile," PayPal chief executive Dan Schulman said in a release.

"In today's digital world, consumers want to be able to buy when, where and how they want."

Schulman described the merging of iZettle and PayPal as a "strategic fit" combining shared values and culture with complementary product offerings and geographies.

The iZettle platform for handling retail transactions is used by nearly a half million merchants, according to PayPal.

The startup has been compared to Square, a payments platform co-founded by Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey that made it easy to take credit card payments using smartphones or tablets.

Buying iZettle will expand PayPal's reach into shops in Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

"Combining our assets and expertise with a global industry leader like PayPal allows us to deliver even more value to small businesses to help them succeed in a world of giants," iZettle chief executive Jacob de Geer said in the release.

The Stockholm-based startup founded in 2010 expected to handle about $6 billion in transactions this year, taking in gross revenue of approximately $165 million in the process. The company said it expected to reach profitability by the year 2020.

After close of the acquisition, co-founder Jacob de Geer will remain in charge of iZettle, reporting to PayPal chief operating officer Bill Ready, according to the companies.

Earlier this month, iZettle filed paperwork to go public with an offering of shares that valued the company at slightly more than a billion dollars.

PayPal closed the Nasdaq trading day in New York with a market value of about $94 billion based on its share price, which rose a percent to $80 in after-hours trades.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

5 Golden Rules For Investing In Annuity

Regardless of your age, your retirement is something that should never be too far away from your thoughts. But as you begin to reach a ‘certain age’, the importance that your pension holds and the role it will play in your future becomes a much more real prospect.

The earlier you start a pension fund, the greater the rewards. But, the tick-tocking of retirement draws closer, people begin to look at making investments to help bolster their pension pot. One concept many people consider is finding an annuity payment. This pays a guaranteed income for life, but is subject to varying interest rates.

To Risk Or Not To Risk?

Knowing what options are available to you will help put you in great stead when it comes to making the most of your hard earned cash. With this in mind, it is always worth seeking the expert of advice of a specialist financial advisor. Using their experience and expertise, they will be able to guide you in finding the right financial retirement plan.

The recent low level of annuity interest rates has seen many people lose out on their investments. This means the amount of guaranteed income paid that can be purchased from a pension fund is at its lowest ever level. This only emphasises the need for investors to consider their options in even more detail.

So if you’re considering investing through annuity, what things must you consider?

Golden Rule #1

Ensure that you have other sources of income or capital to fall back on. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. In today’s climate, there is no guarantee that annuity rates will improve should your decision be deferred so it’s important be stable should your future income fall in value.

Golden Rule #2

Make sure you understand the risks that are involved with your chosen annuity investment. Investments can come with a number of possible outcomes and inconsistent variables so be sure that you fully understand your investment and its consequences

Golden Rule #3

Make sure you have considered all options available to you. The beauty of retirement is that it can be what you make it and, depending on your income, there are a number of options you can opt for.

Golden Rule #4

A risk is a risk for a reason. Many people facing retirement face what is called a ’risk paradox’ between option of guaranteed annuity no longer proving a just investment due to rising inflation. Not only that, your personal circumstances may change, opening up a number of possibilities for you to consider.

Golden Rule #5

Acquire the services of a retirement specialist financial advisor. With their experience and expertise in retirement planning and the options available to you, they will be able to offer guidance on how to invest your money. They will take the time to understand you, your financial situation and your retirement plans before suggesting the most beneficial and secure route.

Make The Most Of Your Retirement

By following these golden rules, you will be able to make the most of your pension pot, giving you the options to plan the retirement you deserve.

source: everythingfinanceblog.com

PayPal keen on collaboration for cash-free future

SAN FRANCISCO - Online financial transactions titan PayPal says it is keen to collaborate with others as it strives for a cash-free future.

"We are all about working with developers to let them take advantage of the heavy lifting we've done when it comes to moving money around the world," Hill Ferguson, the company's vice president of global product, told AFP.

PayPal -- founded 15 years ago with a vision of becoming a global currency -- has also been working with stores in the United States and abroad to let people pay for almost anything with Internet-Age digital wallets.

The trend is proliferating around the globe, according to Ferguson.

"People use their identities to represent themselves when they want to buy something, and merchants get easier ways to know who their customers are and focus on the personalized experiences," he said.

"We really see the future of money as being completely digital -- bringing the experience to the front and the payment to the background," he added. "Right now, it is just the opposite."

Ferguson spoke on the sidelines of San Francisco's Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, where PayPal had quite a setup to tune people into the prospect of going cash-free.

For one, a mock police force patrolled for "visible wallet bulge" as the crowd jammed to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and other acts in Golden Gate Park.

"A music festival is a place where you shouldn't have to carry cash and worry about your wallet," Ferguson said.

"That is the future of commerce, and we want to show that and share that with the rest of the world."

The popularity of PayPal and rival Square, brainchild of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, suggest people are growing increasingly comfortable with the idea of smartphones and tablets being a new way transact business.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Auto Payments Don’t Always Make Life Easier

There isn’t any payment we don’t handle that isn’t done online and set up with auto pay. My credit card, my husband’s credit card, our Roth IRA contributions, and our tithe are all set up through auto pay. What I just found out last week didn’t lead to late fees, but it did take three whole months before I realized it was happening.

The hubs and I set up an auto payment for a biweekly amount (I’ll use $250 biweekly for my example) to go from our checking account to our church. Our church decided to hire an intern as a full time pastor this summer and the church was asked to chip in on his salary for the next year until his salary was worked into the church’s budget. We signed up to give a little extra starting in September and we checked the box to just add $75 on to our current giving. You might be thinking “Oh so you were actually giving $150 a month extra since you had biweekly payments set up?” Nope.

I didn’t realize the payment was changed to monthly instead of biweekly, so that meant our giving drastically went down. Here’s the breakdown of what happened:

Previous set up: $250 biweekly (scheduled for the 1st & 15th day of each month)

New (correct) set up: $325 monthly (1st day of each month) + $250 monthly (15th day of each month)

New (actual) set up: $325 monthly (1st day of each month)

I didn’t notice this until I realized our checking account kept going up each month. We usually have about the same amount in our checking account at the end of each month because everything else gets reallocated to some kind of savings or payment. A huge chunk of it gets moved to the savings account for our home. When I saw the numbers creeping up, I looked back at our past statements and realized there was only one monthly charge coming from our church. In this example, those three months of missed payments add up to $750.

We were able to submit a one time donation to catch up on our missed giving and I corrected the giving amount through our church’s auto-pay set up. I only skim through our bank account online maybe once a week because we enter in our purchases in our handy homemade excel sheet. Our excel sheet accounts for the new biweekly payments but that obviously wasn’t happening in reality. Thank goodness it wasn’t a worse-case scenario. I couldn’t imagine if we accidentally fell 3 months behind on a credit card or mortgage payment!

source:  lifeandmyfinances.com

PAL ticket payments made easy through 7-Eleven

MANILA, Philippines – Travelers using Philippine Airlines (PAL) can now pay their domestic tickets at any of the 766 retail outlets of 7-Eleven nationwide.

With ECPay’s Payment Center Facility in 7-Eleven stores, those who book online would no longer have to line up at PAL to pay for their tickets. All they need to do is to simply go to their nearest 7-Eleven stores.

“This latest passenger service innovation involves a few "easy" steps: First, a passenger books a flight through the PAL website. The flight must be at least 48 hours from the time of booking. Once booking is confirmed, passenger will select "Reserve and Hold" option on the summary page. To complete the process, the passenger details are inputted and the confirmation email must be printed,” PAL said in a statement.

The passenger should go to the nearest 7-Eleven outlet and present their booking confirmation and pay the corresponding amount. The itinerary receipt (E-Ticket) and official receipt will be sent to the passenger's email address.

However, the facility only accepts payments for flight bookings done online.

PAL said the scheme also enables those without credit cards to do their bookings online at the convenience of their homes, offices, internet cafes or mobile phones.

In case of inquiries, passengers may call the ECPay Customer Support hotline at (02) 421-6032 to 35 or email customerservice@ecpay.com.ph.

source: abs-cbnnews.com