Location Tracking to Fight Credit Card Fraud, VISA Says

VISA plans to release a new feature so cardholders can share their location via smartphone, according to an official press release.

Starting April 2015, customers can update their banking mobile apps with a feature named Visa Mobile Location Confirmation. This will allow customers to disclose their location to banks and, consequently, to Visa.

This new function is meant to fight credit card fraud by helping the company determine when a card is being used without its owner present.

“When a cardholder`s mobile device is in the same location as the payment transaction, the issuing financial institution can more confidently approve the transaction,” the company said. “The service uses mobile geo-location data in real time as an additional input into Visa`s predictive fraud analytic.”

The software will be an opt-in service, so it doesn`t work unless people agree to it.

Once enabled, Visa will map out the cardholder`s home range within 50 miles. If he/she leaves this territory, the tracker will send the information to Visa and the company will be less likely to flag the client`s card for fraud alerts when purchases at other locations are made.

“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,” Visa added.

To set up the location tracker, the company has collaborated with different card-issuing banks to add its software to their mobile banking apps.

How effectively do you think this new service will reduce the risk of identity theft and fraudulent purchases?