Credit card notification services
I’m sure you’ve all seen the commercials by now – a well-dressed gentlemen bearing a striking resemblance to one of the James Bonds learns of ongoing credit card fraud and goes hurdling through the streets to catch the crook in the nick of time.
Of course, surprisingly enough, that’s not quite reality. What has really happened? Mr. Bond has been notified after the fact that a transaction has taken place. The bad guy has already walked out of the store with the goods!
I have basically the same service on my Bank of America credit card. Just to experiment, I decided to have them alert me whenever any transaction greater than $1.00 took place, no matter what. I rarely use that card, so I didn’t think it would generate much e-mail.
Well, it didn’t — that was the problem! I charged something on April 3 for about $38, and just today, on April 8, I got a notification from them of the charge. So much for hurdling over parked cars to get to the crook!
All of these are great marketing ideas, but they miss the point. They are helpless to prevent the actual problem, which is that the bad guy successfully uses the card.
PhoneFactor to the rescue! With PhoneFactor, events can be confirmed in advance, rather than the notification arrangement in the TV commercial. Event confirmation with PhoneFactor has the potential to bring a whole new level of control to your financial life. Imagine giving your teenager a credit card "for emergency use only" and getting a call that a $100 purchase was being made at Best Buy. You’d have the option to deny the charge right then and there.
Event Event Confirmation with PhoneFactor can be used for a wide variety of confirmations, such as changing passwords, mailing addresses, and so on. And, of course, it can keep the bad guy from using your card in the first place!
I want to star in that commercial when it comes out!
-Steve
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