Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) announced that it has teamed up with Visa (NYSE: V) to offer a real-time alert service to Wells Fargo Visa credit card holders. The free service will help cardholders to better manage and track their spending and provide near real-time detection of unauthorized account activity.
Wells Fargo’s new Rapid Alerts service will be enabled by Visa’s transaction alerts platform. Alerts sent on behalf of Wells Fargo are sent by Visa’s processing network within seconds of a transaction via text-message or email. Rapid alerts are triggered when a transaction meets a certain criteria previously selected by a Wells Fargo customer, such as a particular type of purchase or a purchase of an unusually large size.
“We believe Rapid Alerts will give customers added peace of mind that they will be notified almost immediately when transactions occur,” said Peter Ho, product manager for Wells Fargo Card Services and Consumer Lending.
Rapid Alert messages will contain the amount, time and date of the transaction and information relating to the merchant that charged the card, such as its name and location. Customers will also be notified if their credit card payments are declined.
“Visa is empowering cardholders to take an active role in managing and protecting their Visa accounts,” said Jim McCarthy, global head of product at Visa Inc.
“Visa’s ability to analyze transactions ‘in-flight’ enables us to provide our 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.”
