Visa has launched a mobile location service to reduce unnecessary purchase declines for travellers.
The new service, Visa Mobile Location Confirmation, will compare the location of a user’s transaction with the geo-location data from their mobile phone to more accurately validate their identity.
The service is an optional one, offering through the banking app of the customer’s financial institution. Cardholders agree to the use of their mobile location information for fraud prevention and can deactivate the service at any time.
Visa will offer the service to U.S. card-issuing financial institutions from April 2015.
Cardholders often face transaction declines while abroad, which Visa estimates can cost them millions of dollars in managing customer service calls.
"Wherever you are in the world, we want Visa transactions to be the most secure, convenient and seamless payment choice," said Mark Nelsen, senior vice president of risk products and business intelligence, Visa Inc.
"By matching the location of the cardholder through a cell phone or other mobile device, to the location of the purchase, Visa’s new service will enable banks to feel more confident about authorising a transaction that might otherwise have been declined due to suspicion of fraud."
"Through Visa’s Mobile Location Confirmation service, we’re enabling more precise fraud monitoring, which creates a better payment experience for travelers, assists merchants and reduces unnecessary operational costs for financial institutions," added Nelsen.
