Visa's Transaction Alerts Now Available in North America
Visa has announced the North American rollout of its new transaction alert service allowing card issuers to provide near real-time alerts to Visa account holders throughout the U.S. and Canada.
According to Visa, "the service enables consumers to better manage and track their spending while providing them with an early warning system for potential fraudulent activities. Alerts are sent on behalf of participating issuers directly from VisaNet, Visa’s global processing network, typically within seconds of a transaction occurring. Alerts are triggered when the transaction meets certain criteria the account holder has selected and are delivered directly to the account holder via email, SMS text message or the Visa Mobile application. Visa’s transaction alerts let consumers monitor their accounts for unusual activity and take immediate action if they believe a potentially fraudulent transaction is taking place."
“Visa is empowering cardholders to take an active role in managing and protecting their Visa account,” said Elizabeth Buse, head of product at Visa Inc. “Visa already delivers real-time transaction risk scores to financial institutions, and we are now providing cardholders with near real-time transaction alerts. Participating Visa cardholders can typically receive alerts before they walk out of the store, rather than hours or even days later.”
The alert message sent to account holders contains the amount, time and date of the transaction, as well as information relating to the merchant, such as name and location. If the transaction appears to be irregular, the account holder can immediately contact their issuer to help stop further transactions on the account. Transaction alerts are designed to help reduce and mitigate fraud by making consumers aware of charges to their accounts in near real-time. By identifying potentially fraudulent transactions earlier, consumers and financial institutions can avoid financial losses.
Consumers will be able to subscribe to the service through their participating issuers and “opt in” to choose the kinds of transactions for which they wish to receive alerts. Criteria for transaction alerts that Visa cardholders may choose include:
- Transactions that exceed the purchase threshold chosen by the cardholder
- Transactions initiated internationally
- Card-not-present transactions, such as purchases made online or by telephone
- Cash withdrawals from an ATM machine
- Declined transactions
- Gasoline transactions
Over the last 12 months, Visa trialed transaction alerts with eight leading North American financial institutions and more than 2,000 participants. Results showed that consumer satisfaction increased dramatically with banks that offered account monitoring capabilities and fraud protection via mobile devices. Visa recently announced the launch of an enhanced Visa Mobile application with U.S. Bank following a successful mobile pilot program. The application, which is available to select U.S. Bank debit cardholders, can be downloaded to mobile devices and provides account holders real-time transaction alerts, even greater functionality and an expanded list of U.S. Bank offers.
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