Visa adds account-level rewards customisation

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By: Wise Marketer Staff |

Posted on October 18, 2005

Visa adds account-level rewards customisation

Visa USA has invested some US$31 million in a software update to meet rising demand for electronic payments, and to provides financial institutions the option to manage credit card rewards offerings at the individual account level, meaning they can match individual offers with specific consumers' needs.

At the same time, Visa also introduced the ability (in the USA only) to provide real-time substantiation of qualified, over-the-counter medical expense purchases made with a Visa employee benefit debit card. Overall, the upgrades to the VisaNet payment network focus on increases in operational efficiency, expansion of technological capabilities, and support for new products and services.

Improvements Among the most significant changes made in the latest update, the revised VisaNet system will:

  • Support the ability to use the full 16-digit card number for identifying whether a particular Visa Traditional or Visa Traditional Rewards consumer credit cardholder's transaction would benefit from a programme or service offered by the merchant or issuing financial institution. This provides great possibilities for issuers to personalise rewards and other programmes to the needs of individual cardholders, rather than larger groups.  
  • Enable real-time substantiation of qualified, over-the-counter medical expense purchases made with a Visa employee benefit debit card at supermarkets, discount stores, and other merchants.  
  • Provide a global implementation of Visa Resolve Online (VROL), which streamlines the process of handling disputed transactions. By providing better access to transaction data online in a Member's back office, VROL can help settle disputes much faster, usually within a single billing cycle.

More to come According to John Partridge, CEO of Inovant LLC (the IT organisation responsible for Visa's global transactions processing and technology development), "The demands of cardholders never stop changing, so we never stop improving and expanding the technology that is at the core."

Visa anticipates many more years of such enhancements to meet a growing demand for electronic payments, and to support the widespread use of new types of payment cards and technologies.

More Info: 

http://www.visa.com