SAN FRANCISCO -- Visa International and Sprint have introduced a nationwide telephone service that has been a year in the making.
The service retains the name of a previous program, VisaPhone, which has been discontinued and replaced with "the next generation of bank card calling cards," said a Visa spokesman.
Each of Visa's 170 million U.S. casholders can call a tollfree number to sign up for the service.
Cardholders can have their phone charges billed either to a Visa card account or directly by Sprint When calls are billed to Visa, cardholders receive 25% off AT&T's per-minute rates. They earn 15% off AT&T rates when they pay Sprint directly.
Visa cardholders who sign up can dial 10-VSA to place a call from a U.S. phone. A cardholder then enters an easy-to-remember number (usually a home telephone number) plus a four-digit authorization code.
The briefs were compiled from staff and wire reports.