Visa to Notify Cardholders Quicker Via “Alerts”

How would you feel if you were notified the moment that potential card fraud activity occurred with your account? Recently Visa announced cardholders can look forward to a new notifying service that does exactly that. Issuers with Visa branded credit cards can now provide their cardholders with real-time alerts on purchases that they may or may not have initiated. This allows consumers the ability to watch their accounts for abnormal activity and take instant action if they think fraudulent transactions have taking place.

How does it work? For those cardholders that decide to opt into receiving real-time alerts, they will receive messages (email and/or text messages) from "VisaNet", which is Visa’s global processing network. The alerts will detail information such as amount spent, time and date of the transaction, and merchant information (name and location). When it comes to when you will be notified, cardholders have many options to choose from which include:
 

• Transactions exceeding purchase amount chosen by the cardholder
• International transactions
• Online or telephone payments
• Gasoline transactions
• ATM cash withdrawals
• Declined transactions
   

So what does Visa hope to achieve by giving cardholders real time alerts on potential fraud purchases? According to a Visa representative, they are hoping that their new alert system will help cardholders to become more active when it comes to managing and protecting their account. For Visa itself, the move to a faster alert system will allow them to become more competitive in the market as advanced notifying systems have increased customer satisfaction for their competitors.