by Robin Amster
Last updated: 2:00 PM ET, Wed November 16, 2016
PHOTO: Michael Boult speaks at the Travel Leaders National Meeting. (Photo courtesy of Travel Leaders Associates)
Travel Leaders Associates' Business Travel Center of Excellence is now offering its member agencies a virtual payment network.
The announcement was made at the recent 2016 Travel Leaders National Meeting at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside.
The virtual payment network will enable agents to improve cost savings and increase policy compliance for their corporate clients while reducing fraud and simplifying employee reimbursement procedures, according to Travel Leaders' executives.
"Virtual payment cards are a trend," said Michael Boult, vice president, Travel Leaders' Business Travel Center of Excellence. "They are becoming more important in business travel. There are a lot of fraud issues and, in addition, a lot of millennials don't have credit and don't want credit.
"These [virtual payment cards] provide greater flexibility for clients and lower risk for all concerned," he added.
Virtual payment processing is similar to that provided by traditional credit cards, except the virtual cards provide a 16-digit card number for a specific dollar amount for one time use. After use, the cards are de-activated
The virtual payments can be used with specific online and phone transactions, travel-related expenses such as hotel bookings, and payments where physical cards are not needed. No actual plastic card is issued for the process. That provides an extra layer of security compared with traditional credit card products.
Other advantages to using the virtual payment processing network include:
- More data per transaction captured by companies rather than from a traditional corporate card or from reimbursing employees who use their personal credit cards.
- Automated credit card authorization sent to hotels will be integrated with the card and the GDS.
- Increases in travel policy compliance, as well as hotel attachment rate, by decreasing renegade spending, because the virtual card can only be used if the air or hotel booking is booked through Travel Leaders.
- Through an auto-pay option, the card (and the automated hotel credit card authorization) will be integrated with one's existing expense management service. This is crucial because a high percentage of corporate bookings are completed online.
Boult said the company also is working on pilot projects for the use of a virtual payment processing network for leisure travel that might eventually be available to all Travel Leaders Network agents, not just member agencies of Travel Leaders Associates' Business Travel Center of Excellence.
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