A recent announcement made by Visa (read here) was very interesting to me. Visa is teaming with eight US banks to offer a SMS alert solution. Card holders of these banks can subscribe to this service by registering their Mobile phone number with VISA. This ties the number to the credit card. Whenever the card is used (and according to settings managed by VISA), a text alert is sent to the mobile phone informing the cardholder of a transaction (immediately). The advantages are of course multiple. It would be interesting how this services is promoted and how big the take-up will be.Just as an afterthought, who is prepared to enter into a bet with me that the technology utilised for this service were built in South Africa?