Preliminary about Credit Card

Hi readers,   

From this post you will be able to find the meaning of antecedent features of a credit card.

Reading it made me wonder if the

numbers written on a credit/debit card also have some particular

meaning. So I decided to pursue this topic in detail, and as I

guessed, each of these digits has a specific meaning.

Note: Since VISA and MASTER Cards are the most widely available my

cards, they have been used in research. But the results hold true for

all card type.

     

FIRST DIGIT OF                           ASSOCIATED ASSIGNMENT

CREDIT CARD NO.

     0.                                                  ISO/TC 68 and other industry assignments  

     1 .                                                 Airlines
     2.                                                  Airlines and other industry assignment

     3.                                                  Travel and entertainment (such as American

                                                          Express and Diners Club)          

     4.                                                  Banking and financial (Visa)          

     5.                                                  Banking and financial (MasterCard)

     6.                                                  Merchandizing and banking (Discover)

     7.                                                  Petroleum

     8.                                                  Telecommunications and other industry

assignments       

                                 You can understand this better by taking out your card and seeing the first digit. If you own a petroleum card (such as those issued by Exxon Mobil or BP) then your card number will start with 7. If you own a debit/credit card issued by a bank then it will start with 4 or 5 (depending on whether it is a Visa card or Master card).

      Identifying Card Issuer                IIN   

              Issuer                                                

           American Express                                          34xxxx, 37xxxx

                 VISA                                                               4xxxxx

                Master Card                                                   51xxxx-55xxxx

     So if you have a card that starts with 51 that means it is a Master Card.

Note: During my study I observed that Maestro card starts with 50 and 62. If you know something

about Maestro cards, please share it through your comments.

Mathematically speaking, there can be 10 raised to power 6 (since 6 digits are used to

identify an issuer), i.e. 1 million unique card issuers !!

Finding Account Number

Starting from the seventh digit to second last digit, i.e., 7th to n-1 digit in a card represents the

account number. I noticed that this account number is not the same as your bank account number.

For cards issued by ICICI (whether VISA or MASTER Cards), only first five digits of the card number

and the account number matched, while there was no such similarity for cards issued by HDFC

bank.

Conclusion: 7th to n-1 digit in the card represents the account number. This account number is not

the account number of your bank but the account number generated by the Card Issuer (such as

VISA or Master Card) to uniquely identify you.

A card can have a maximum of 19 digits. So the account number can be a maximum of 12

digit number. That means each issuer can issue a maximum of 10 raised to the power 12,

i.e., 1 trillion cards !!

Check Digit

The last digit on the card is known as the check digit and it determines whether it is a valid card or

not.

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