It's perfectly simple. After you drop your credit card in the street, how long will it take before you discover it's being used? Or after it gets cloned on the Web, how much can the thief spend?

Master card says its software knows within seconds of the dodgy transaction. They can spot it. The problem is, you're the only one who can report it stolen and put a stop on it.

So they used to phone you up; but now, they send you a text. That's it.

Edited by author 02-10-2005 03:22 AM
That was a software error... ignore this message!

Text alerting for transactions is a great idea but the key issues with this system are that: only 47 banks have Aristion the system which uses it, the bank doesn't generally have the mobile phone numbers of the card holder, and you only send texts for transactions the Ariston system identifies not every transation - there is a great system in Hungary with OTP bank that has been working for years which alerts you about all transactions, and you can get your balance and other information