Visa along with 8 North American financial institutions — including PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo in the United States, and Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, and Vancity in Canada — is initiating a pilot program, involving 2,000 participants to test the delivery of real-time notification alerts on Visa accounts.
The program is designed to “enhance the consumer payment experience” by alerting cardholders in (near) real-time of transaction activity on their Visa account. Participants in the pilot may choose to receive the following notification alerts from Visa via email or SMS:
- cash withdrawal from an ATM
- a transaction initiated cross border
- an Internet or telephone transaction, and
- a transaction that exceeds an amount that has been chosen by the cardholder.
Once they receive an alert, cardholders can verify the transaction details and eventually contact their bank to help stop further transactions on the card. The service is designed to help cardholders keep closer track of their transactions and spending levels as they go about their daily routine.
[Via: slashphone]