Ten Visa cardholder protections that you may not know about

In recognition of National Consumer Protection Week, Visa sent out a press release today that outlines ten policies that protect cardholders. Since nearly everyone has a Visa card and these protections are often hard to research or buried in the fine print, it's worth taking a few minutes to go over what's included:

1. Counterfeiting protection - Visa cards include holograms and other protections that make it hard to reproduce or modify credit cards.
2. No check-out fees - Cardholders don't have to pay surcharges that merchants add on to purchases paid for with credit cards. These charges are outlawed in 10 states.
3. Lost or stolen card protection - Call 1-800-VISA-911 (pretty easy to remember!) to report a lost or stolen card. There are also international and collect call phone numbers available.
4. Unauthorized charge protection - Forget a $50 limit, Visa has a zero liability policy for all fraudulent charges.
5. Billing dispute grace period - If you have a dispute with a company over a charge (ie: they billed you the wrong amount) let Visa know and they will help with the investigation and put the charge on hold.
6. No minimum charges - Visa merchants can't set a minimum transaction amount (this one is news to me) and can't charge customers for using their card.
7. Identity theft assistance - Visa has a special hotline set up for Identity theft assistance at 1-866-ID-Hotline.
8. Online protections - The Verified by Visa program helps protect customers keep their credit information secure when making online transactions. Cardholders have to sign up for this feature online.
9. Rental car protections - This is a little known protection that many credit card issuers offer. If your rental car is damaged or stolen you receive a 24-hour damage waiver from Visa. This policy has some specific terms, conditions and rules about merging with other insurance though.
10. Emergency assistance - Emergency cash and replacement card services are available 24-7 for certain types of Visa cardholders.

Some of these features are pretty standard and some come as surprise. The moral to the story here is to always contact your credit card company when you have a question or need assistance. There are all sorts of non-advertised policies and programs available that can help you in the event of identity theft, fraud or financial distress. If you don't communicate with your creditors, you could be missing out on some cool features.

Comments

[celina]

HELLO
CAN U GIVE ME A CREDITCARD PLZZ