Visa Europe will trial a new mobile service giving
Visa cardholders instant transaction confirmation to their mobiles when
they use their debit, credit, or prepaid card.
Visa claims the
notifications will provide increased peace of mind when shopping, on a
night out, or on holiday by instantly sending the time, location and
amount of each transaction to the consumer's mobile.
Visa Europe customers
will be able to choose to receive the alert via an SMS or email on any
mobile device or to an application downloaded to a smartphone such as
an iPhone or Android device.
Visa's mobile alert service will allow consumers to be in constant control of their card payments.
Last year, in the United States Visa and eight North American Banks
participants to test the delivery of real-time notification alerts on Visa
accounts.
Sandra
Alzetta, Senior Vice President of Innovation and New Product
Development at Visa Europe says: "With Visa's mobile alert service, we
want to offer cardholders the reassurance of knowing, in real-time,
exactly where and when their card is being used. If something looks
suspicious, this will give them the power to put a stop to any fraud
taking place on their cards."
Visa is currently trialling
the real-time alert service with its staff in the UK and working
closely with member banks through which it will make the technology
available to consumers.
"We have chosen the summer
holiday season to test this proposition as it's the period when people
travel most. Feedback from our current pilots indicates that consumers
often receive the alerts before their cards are even handed back to
them at the point of sale. This real-time capability makes Visa's
solution unique," adds Alzetta.
It is envisaged that
future developments could make it possible for consumers to customize
the format and content of alerts to fit their individual needs. For
example, instant conversion into the user's home currency while abroad
will make it easier to keep on top of budgets.