Build on Visa’s global processing network VisaNet, the service offers Visa account holders with a mobile SMS text, email, and online spend management tool that allows them to set a ‘purchase threshold’ for various accounts, monitor spending in certain categories, and alerts them when spending exceeds pre-set levels.
The service will be offered to account holders by participating financial institutions, and will let consumers manage spending on any Visa account, including credit, debit or prepaid.
To use the service, Visa account holders required to select the spending categories which they wish to manage such as grocery, entertainment or restaurant spending; set the budget levels for the specified time period like daily, weekly or monthly and the notification type such as SMS text message or email.
Visa said that the service is also available to small business and commercial Visa accounts, enabling business owners to better manage expenses and ensure their employees are spending company funds appropriately and within budget.
PNC Bank has been piloting the new services within its Virtual Wallet product – an online money management tool developed in 2008. The bank also began offering select features of the Visa service to its retail customer base- both consumers and small businesses.
