Its been old news in Mexico for a long time now.

genterara

@Con Seannery: Damn, meant @jakebathman:

Con Seannery

@yogibimbi: Well, I, for one, welcome...wait, IT'S A TRAP!

Con Seannery

yeah. they've been doing this in Korea for years. every time you use your credit/debit card it SMS's your phone.

mysbyu

hmmm, 'burning up you messages'? Are there any cellular plans where you have a limited amount of receiving messages?

yogibimbi

i see this being used a lot by parental overlords and their ensuing control on a kid's bank account.

you'd be less likely to get away with an extra stop at taco bell on your parents' account if you knew daddy would get a text message 3 seconds later

jakebathman

What kind of "testing" does this need? It seems pretty simple to me.

bandit

this is not so new, in the middle east they have this already, and they call sometimes if they think something is fishy

kush

This is old news here, too. I received calls on my account several times over the last few years. Maybe the VISA organization is new to this after select banks have tried this on their own.

cosmowayne

...does this mean we can now pay our credit card bills in copper, silver or gold pieces?

AngryBlakGuy

I'd love to have this... with an optional enhancement: send the the SMS, and wait for my approval, BEFORE approving the transaction. Sure, it'll slow the transaction process a little, but security would be great.

On a similar note, I think Paypal (and competitors) should market themselves to brick & mortar stores, restaurants, and bars as a way of accepting payment with having to carry anything more than your cell.

hnkelley

Great for keeping on top of your spendy SO, you controlling bastard! Of course, we wouldn't be in this mess if you would get a better job than at the bowling alley!

myotheralt

I'd really love to have this for all my cards - while I was in China a friend of mine had the service and it was kind of cool to go to a restaurant, pay with the card, and get a text about the charge before the waiter even had a chance to come back with the receipt.

SMS or E-mail me after every charge with the merchant and the amount, please!

pzy

@pzy: That would prevent waiters from giving themselves and extra generous tip, eh?

1roll20s

@hnkelley: No offense, but that would be annoying. Since most transactions ARE already approved by you. So theoretically you would have to enter a pin number, sign a receipt, AND answer a text message to buy anything. The instant SMS option gives you ample time to respond to fraud and get the money back in your account.

In other news Western Union prepaid MasterCards have had this option forever. I thought regular banks had it too. I always just thought I didn't want the feature and so didn't turn it on. Now i realize I just never had the choice, lol.

tatiana.noel

Washington Mutual already does this, although the triggers are a little sparse.

Of course, Wamu doesn't TELL you they can notify you via SMS or email so unless you investigate it, you'll overdraw your account all the same...

FritzLaurel

God please not SMS. Fucking SMS needs to die already.

mullingitover

Really, is that news? i have that for free. I can just get at my Internet Bank, and set up the triggers that makes me recieve a SMS, it's not "really real time" but sometimes it only takes 2 min to get the warning.

i can set up thing like:
when i spend more than X$ on Visa Electron
when i spend more than X$ on Visa
when i get a transfer that is worth more than x$
when i make a transfer that is worth more than x$

and few other stuff.

is this any news?

i mean, really, i know real-time is way faster than 2hrs max (although i usually get less), but, that's not really a big deal.

laio

Yup, Kush is right - Middle east banks do this as a part of their regulatory requirements. All bank customers have this option. It works - It rocks... I know the balance of my account always... no guess work after a spending spree. besides the mCommerce platforms they use for this are expandable for all sorts of additional goodies.. card initialisation, balance enquiry, transfers etc.. and as a Security Bod, I have reviewed the functions and they are sound... about time the west caught up.

binkyje

To all people outside of the US and Canada - is there a reason to say "It's an old news, it's been available here for ages"? Normally I don't rant but this bugs the shit out of me. This news is for the US and Canada so keep your stupid comments to yourself. Banks may have such services but this one obviously would be "Bank Independent" as it would be launched by Visa and your bank would not have much to say - it just would become a part of the "transaction processing mechanism" AND would run just like "Verified by Visa" authentication.

Certain things such as SMS did not take off on this side of the pond until late 2000's for an obvious reason... US carriers always have offered a large buckets of minutes to to their users so it was easier to talk then to text. This was nice but it also slowed down the implementation of certain services such as the one described here. Don't be a smart ass saying "I've had it for ages" because there's really no point to such comments. Perhaps gizmodo should run a parallel forums in each article..one called "Comments that make sense" and the other one called "Stupid remarks".

Maciek

@kush: Very true... and very helpful indeed sometimes.

@US Banks: Wow! welcome to the 21st century, ain't it?

gela

Wells Fargo sends me a text every day with my account balance, and whenever a check or direct deposit is posted. Unfortunately it seems to have a significant delay as opposed to just viewing the website. I usually won't get a text about my paycheck being direct deposited until Saturday, and often when it sends a text about my balance, it's usually 12 or more hours off.

Even with these negative points though, I still find it very valuable since I tend not to watch my bank account very closely.

SpyderMS

wait i have this service since 2002 in india!!!!

pradster

@tatiana.noel: You don't have to approve it. The SMS just let you know that someone (maybe you, maybe not) used the card. that's it. If it's a legit use, no problem. If not, you can immediately block the card.

BTW, this is quite normal in Italy too. My online bank sends me an SMS when I use the CC, make a money transfer and so on for all the important/critical functions. It's free and I've been using this service for at least 2 or 3 years :)

mendo

Very Good Concept to bad some one else has already patented it. Hopefully they are working together on this or it could spell bad news for Visa and the Banks associated.

labrat9876

bank of america has this in the us - emails though not sms. been here for at least 2yrs or more.

keysereble

I'm one of those ppl outside North America and i cannot see why its taken so long. Here is South Africa, it has also been something that has been available for ages and according to many, this country does not even have half the infrastructure than the north american countries has.

Best part of all, our messages are totally free. And we have a choice of SMS, Email or even both.

drifterz198

Great idea. I've had my card # stolen overseas three times in the last five years. It'd be nice to get an SMS rather than having the CC company call me asking me if I just bought $5000 worth of electronics in Hong Kong at 6:00 AM (when I bought gas in DC at 10:00 PM the night before)

dc-united

I've been using this with my netspend card for the past 5 years...

faabshaam

Good I dea if I didnt know for sure that the banks will fuck it up and we will have to pay some fee because of that.

VideoVampire

@dc-united: Though I've never had my card number stolen, I would love to get this type of confirmation. Either email or SMS would be fine. I get "courtesy" calls from Capital One all the time about "suspicious" transactions, all of which are legit. It would certainly save them money to auto-notify me (and let me decide what's suspicious) than to pay someone to pore over transaction records and call people unnecessarily over POTS.

And one more thing: make entering billing zipcode on credit card purchases MANDATORY!

lightningrob

There are some pre-paid Visa cards that already do this.

smegz

@tatiana.noel: Yes, it would be very annoying, hence the suggestion that it be an option. Only activate it when you're having a problem like a spouse spending willy-nilly or some such. It's a way of controlling the situation just short of declaring a freeze on the accounts that doesn't involve the (expensive, frequently useless) credit-lock of the credit reporting agencies. It puts you in control of your account.

hnkelley