We all know what a Credit Card is. We either own one or know someone who does. So, this form of plastic money is not really new to most of us. If you’ve take a good look at your Credit Card, you probably know that a Credit Card generally has 15 or 16 digits imprinted on the face of the card, along with your name, and the validity date.
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Though you may have observed those digits and used them often while making an online transaction, did you know that those are not just random numbers? They have an underlying meaning. Want to know what they mean? Tag along!
Understanding your Credit Card number
The 15 or 16 digits on the Credit Card can be broken down as below:
- The first digit is the Major Industry Identifier (MII). For instance, 1 and 2 are Airline cards, 7 is petroleum, 4 and 5 is banking and financial and so on. It designates the category of the entity which issued the card.
- The next six digits are the Issuer Identification Number (IIN). These numbers signify the institution which issued the card. For instance: Visa cards will start with the number 4, Mastercard starts with 51, 52, 53 and American Express with 34 or 37.
- The seventh and following digits, excluding the last digit are the person’s account number.
- The final digit is the checksum which is used to validate the card using Luhn’s algorithm. This is mainly used by Credit Card companies.
Is there an interesting fact that you know that you’d like to share? Leave a comment in the comments section below. And before you go, why not check out some exciting offers on Credit Cards?