Visa Says Its Software Now Catches More Illegal Credit Card Activity

Consumers who are actively comparing credit card offers and are concerned about fraud and identity theft may want to look closely at Visa. The credit card issuer says it may be able to provide their customers more protection than other companies.

Visa, which is the world's largest electronic payment network, said it put in place increased protections for consumers during the 2010 holiday season.

The company says it upgraded its systems so that developers could catch more fraud, National Public Radio reports.

These updated analytics included putting a greater emphasis on the speed of consumer transactions, the time purchases were conducted and the distance between stores where payments were conducted.

Visa's head of global risk products, Nancy Hilgers, says earlier programs were not able to analyze as much data, and in some cases, were limited to only one or two elements. Because of this, the company says more criminals were likely to go unnoticed by the system, the news source says.

These new protections may also help stop cross-border fraud – instances where U.S. cards are used outside of the county – and other popular and fairly simple fraud methods, according to the company.

By: P. Miller

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Pete Miller is a financial journalist who focuses on relevant personal finance topics on e-wisdom.com, including bank accounts , credit cards insurance rates and mortgage loans.