Visa To Rollout Stricter Policies On Trial Offers In April Next Year

Visa Inc. has been cracking down on the negative billing & subscriptions that come with charge-free trials. And the card company’s new set of more stringent policies will swing into action in April next year.

The card network’s implementation of revised laws comes a year MasterCard Inc. laid down stricter rules on negative billers.

A negative biller is one who onboards a consumer in the signup phase, offers a charge-free trial subscription for a service, and then automatically remits finances from a client’s card soon after the end of the trial or until a customer terminates.

MasterCard, a comparable card network to Visa made amendments that require a retailer to seek a card-owner’s consent— to start billing— at the completion of a trial.

On top, MasterCard’s new policy requires a retailer to inform the cardholder, either through email or SMS about specifics such as; the remitted amount, date of payment date, and business name as well as detailed cancellation instructions.

And Visa Inc.’s updated set of laws is not very different from MasterCard’s amendments.

The underlying discrepancy, however, is that Visa’s policy looks to address all subscription-based physical and digital goods while MasterCard’s only touched on physical goods.

As we speak, Visa has posted a notice on a website it has dedicated solely to retailers. According to the website update, Visa has had policies to regulate such subscriptions ever since 2011.

Among issues listed in the notice, are the many growing concerns in free-trial offers, including;

• Card-owner grievances
• The misunderstanding among customers who all of a sudden realize they are already in a subscription
• The absence of a system that can separate transactions from free-trial and other promotions from other kinds of subscriptions
• The lack of clear-laws by issuers on ongoing disputes

According to Visa, these new law amendments will ensure better consumer recognition, hassle-free termination, and easy solving of disputes.

The post also explains that Visa is plan to implement these changes comes after an in-depth look into current policies and the realization that promotions that proceed into billing or recurring remittances is a major concern for cardholders.

Final Words

Visa new law seeks to hold the fort for card-owners who enter free-trials only to suffer automatic charges soon after it ends.

But the problems of lack of clear policies are far reaching; customers have to make phone-calls to file complaints and visa has to close controversial cards and re-issue new ones.

Hopefully, the regulation updates will protect customers from unplanned-for charges.

Author Bio: Electronic payments expert Blair Thomas is the co-founder of high risk payment processing company eMerchantBroker. He’s just as passionate about helping businesses get a high risk merchant account he is with traveling and spending time with his dog Cooper.