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The
Secret of Credit Card Numbers
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by:
Gordon Goh
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Have you ever really looked at your credit
card and tried to figure out what that huge string of numbers really
means? Do these card issuers have so many customers that your account
number has to be 16 digits long?
You may be surprised to know that all those numbers you see actually do
stand for something, and it's not just who YOU are. Let's take a look.
Most of the major credit card companies operate on the same system when
choosing a credit card number. Other cards like gas cards, department
store cards and phone cards go their own way. Let's concentrate on the
ones that all play by the same rules.
The very first digit in the series will be a 3,4,5, 0r 6. This number
designates the type of card as follows:
3 = a Travel & Entertainment Card like American Express or
Diners Club.
4 = Visa and Visa-branded debit cards, cash cards, etc.
5 = MasterCard and MasterCard-branded debit cards, cash cards, etc.
6 = Discover
American Express and Diners Club use the second digit to identify the
company. That means that Diners Club cards will start with either "36"
or "38", and American Express cards will use either "34" or "37".
The remaining numbers in the series are used for different purposes
depending upon the card type and issuer.
In most cases, the next group after the opening series of numbers
represents the routing number of the card-issuing bank, the group after
that is the user's account number, and the final digit is a check
digit. The check digit is a number that is calculated by applying a
special formula to all of the other numbers. The check digit is the
result of that formula and is used as an anti-fraud check.
To keep things from getting too confusing, look at your card as you
follow along for the next steps.
American Express
The American Express Card uses digits three and four for type (business
or personal) and the currency of the cardholder's country of origin.
The next digits from the fifth through the eleventh are account
numbers. Digits twelve through fourteen indicate the card number within
the account and the last digit is the check digit.
Visa
With Visa, digits two through six represent the bank number. Beginning
with the seventh digit and running through the twelfth or the fifteenth
represents the account number and the last number is the check digit.
Since all Visa cards do not have the same amount of numbers in the
sequence, the number of digits in a group may vary.
MasterCard
For MasterCard, the second digit, through to anywhere between the third
and the sixth digit is the bank number. All remaining digits, except
the check digit at the end of the series, identifies that cardholder's
account.
Now that we've gone over it all, you're probably wondering why you were
ever wondering in the first place. Just remember though, knowledge is
power. Some things are just fun to know.
About the author:
Gordon Goh is the owner of Easy-Credit-Card-Guide.com offering free
credit card information for everyone. You can receive a free credit
card at http://www.easy-credt-card-guide.com
Circulated by Article Emporium
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