subject: Billing & Finance Charge Methods In Usa [print this page] American multinational economic services corporation headquartered on 595 Market Street, economic region in San Francisco, California, United States, although much of the company's staff is based in Foster City, California. Visa does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers; rather, Visa provides financial institutions with Visa-branded compensation goods that they then use to offer credit, debit, prepaid and cash-access programs to their customers.
Initially, signed copies of sales drafts were incorporated in each customer's monthly billing testimonial for verification purposes--an industry practice known as "Country Club Billing". By the late 1970s, however, billing statements no longer contained these enclosures, but rather a summary statement show posting date, purchase date, reference number, merchant name, and the dollar amount of each purchase. At the same time, many issuers, particularly Bank of America, were in the process of changing their methods of finance charge calculation. Initially, a "previous balance" method was used--calculation of finance charge on the unpaid balance shown on the prior month's statement. Later, it was decided to use "average daily balance" which resulted in increased revenue for the issuers by calculating the number of days each purchase was included on the prior month's statement
The original idea was the brainchild of BofA's in-house product development think tank, the Customer Services Research Group, and its leader, Joseph P. Williams. Williams convinced senior BofA executives in 1956 to let him pursue what became the world's first successful credit card "drop", or mass mailing of unsolicited credit cards that is actual working cards, not mere applications to a large population. Visa has operations across Asia-Pacific, North America, Central and South America, Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East. Visa Europe is a separate membership entity that is an exclusive licensee of Visa Inc.'s trademarks and technology in the European region, issuing cards such as Visa Debit.
The new campaign enabled Visa to align advertising worldwide under a single theme that could be executed locally for maximum relevance and impact and highlight how Visa differs from standard cash and checks in security, control, and convenience
Visa has a set of rules that preside over the participation of financial institutions in its payment system. Acquiring banks are dependable for ensuring that their merchants comply with the rules. Rules address how a cardholder must be identified for security, how transactions may be denied by the bank and how banks may cooperate for fraud prevention, and how to keep that identification and fraud protection standard and non-discriminatory. Other rules govern what creates an enforceable proof of authorization by the cardholder
