March 1, 2010

• 3rd-Party Processing for CCs Not Fraud, Pt.2
    Know who's calling and why.

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  The credit card companies and their processing agencies strongly adhere to Visa and MasterCard regulations that govern their practices regarding everything from finance charges, annual percentage rate (APR), annual fees; billing disputes; collection practices etc. All of the MasterCard and Visa regulations are kept in mind when the credit card company and processors write their objectives or mission, value and core statements (as all are vital to their success). Most credit card companies and their third parties adhere to Core Value statement which describes their internal values such as dealing with their stakeholders or investors , the ethics of the companies and their social and ethical standards and contributions.

  When a consumer calls the credit card company because they received a call, they may not actually be calling the credit union or bank. It may be one of these third-party companies. The consumer can verify this by simply contacting the actual credit card issuer or by reading the original pamphlet or checking their website.

  The confusion sets in because most third parties when making outbound calls, will only leave the issuer name and the credit card customer's name that they need to speak with. Because they're making an outbound call, they usually do not ask for complete security information from the card holder. This is the industry standard to avert would-be fraudsters from gathering vital and highly secure information from hapless consumers who can’t easily verify who's calling them.

  Consumers should be aware of the processing involved with their credit cards. If they think the call might be part of a fraud or scam, they should not give out security information. Instead, they should contact their actual issuer immediately and let them know about the activity. Consumer involvement is vital to the issuer's success as well as that of the consumer.

  Just remember: Always ask if you are not sure of a procedure or a call that you receive on behalf of your credit card issuer. It is better to be safe than sorry. All third parties are not scams. Most are there to help the issuing bank with credit card operations.
  
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