- Credit Cards
- Credit Card Basics
More than just random digits, these numbers follow a specific formula
ByJustin Pritchard
Updated on September 13, 2022
Reviewed bySamantha Silberstein
In This Article
View All
In This Article
- How Long Is a Credit Card Number?
- Parts of a Credit Card Number
- Security Codes
- Credit Card Technology Improvements
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/personwithcreditcard-7077df54ad4245c191ef7288a27d9018.jpg "Where Does Your Credit Card Number Come From? (1)")
The numbers on a credit card provide a unique way to identify your credit card account and authorize purchases. Credit card numbers can be between 10 and 19 digits long, and each part of the number has a different purpose. Take a look at credit card numbers and what they mean.
Key Takeaways
- Credit card numbers must be between 10 and 19 digits long, and are usually 16 digits long.
- Each credit card number must follow a specific formula that identifies the issuing bank.
- Credit card numbers also contain a check digit, which ensures that the number is valid.
- Changes in credit card technology, such as chips, tokens, and mobile payments, help protect your credit card number from fraud.
How Long Is a Credit Card Number?
Credit card numbers may be ten to 19 digits long.
Visa, Mastercard, and Discover cards most often are 16 digits long, and American Express cards typically have 15 digits.
Parts of a Credit Card Number
Credit card account numbers, also known as primary account numbers (PANs), consist of three main parts:
- Information about the card issuer
- Your account information
- A check digit
Credit card numbers fall under identification card standards set by the International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC). As a result, a straightforward formula dictates the format.
Issuer Information
The first part of the number on identification cards that follow these standards—including credit cards and debit cards—consists of information about the card’s issuer.
Industry number: The first digit of your card is an industry identifier, which indicates the type of business the issuer of your card is involved in or, in some cases, outright identifies the type of credit card, such as Visa or Mastercard.
| Credit Card Industry Numbers | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Airline |
| 2 | Some Mastercard accounts since 2017 |
| 3 | American Express and Diners Club |
| 4 | Visa |
| 5 | Mastercard |
| 6 | Discover |
| 7 | Petroleum |
| 8 | Telecommunications |
| 9 | Government |
Issuer identification number: The next six to eight digits are an issuer identification number (IIN), which is also called a "bank identification number" (BIN). That number specifies which financial institution issued your card.
Under the direction of the ISO/IEC, all issuers of credit cards should use an eight-digit IIN or BIN. This is designed to increase the number of potential IINs/BINs and prevent a shortage of them.
Your Account Information
The remaining digits, except for the last digit, are unique to your specific credit card account. They are selected by the issuer.
Check Digit
The last digit of a 16-digit PAN is the check digit—an essential part of a checksum, which helps to ensure that a credit card number is valid. The check digit is not selected by the credit card issuer but is determined mathematically based on something called the Luhn algorithm. This series of steps provides a quick and easy way to ensure the numbers entered from your card for payment follow an acceptable pattern. Ultimately, the algorithm looks for an output that is divisible by 10, indicating that the card number is potentially valid.
Read the numbers from right to left, skipping over the check digit, which will be used later in the process. Starting with the second digit from the right, double every other number. If a resulting number is two digits, such as 18, you will add the two digits together—in this case, to get 9. Add up all of these numbers. Then add up the digits you skipped when you were doing the doubling. Finally, add those totals together, along with the check digit. The result will be divisible by 10.
The checksum provides basic quality control, but it does not provide robust protection against fraud.
Note
Because the algorithm is publicly available, anybody can generate card numbers that satisfy the requirement. However, the check digit is helpful for catching data entry errors and unsophisticated thieves.
Security Codes
Your credit card account number contains essential information for processing payments, but in many cases, you also need a security code, also called a "card verification value" (CVV). When ordering online or by phone, you typically need to provide the security code to complete your purchase. That code helps verify that you have possession of the card and that someone isn't using a stolen credit card number. Your card number may be compromised in data breaches or by card skimmers, but getting the code is an additional hurdle for thieves.
- Visa, Mastercard, and Discover cards display a three-digit CVV on the back of the card.
- American Express cards display a four-digit CCV on the front of the card.
Credit Card Technology Improvements
Traditional card readers receive your credit card account information directly from a magnetic strip on the back of the card. It’s easy to steal a card number from a magnetic strip, and you potentially expose your account number every time you swipe your card. Some merchants in the U.S. still use magnetic card readers, but those readers are increasingly being replaced with more secure technology.
NFC mobile payments: When you pay with your mobile phone, your phone sends encrypted payment information to a payment terminal with near-field communication (NFC). You'll need to have entered your card number in your device’s payment app before you can begin making a mobile payment, but your device will not transmit your actual card number.
Tokenization: Instead of providing card information to a merchant’s payment terminal “in the open,” the information can be replaced with a random series of characters known as a "token." Hackers are unable to make sense of the stolen data because it wasn't created by an algorithm that could be decrypted.
EMV cards: Credit cards with a smart chip, which are known as "EMV cards," also protect your credit card number. Instead of swiping your card and providing an unencrypted account number, you insert your card with a chip into a chip reader.
The chip contains a processor that can encrypt your information as well as generate a unique code that is used for a single transaction. That interactive process and the chip that's crucial to it are hard for would-be thieves to duplicate.
Note
EMV stands for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa, the three companies that pioneered the chip technology.
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Sources
The Balance uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
American National Standards Institute. "ISO Announces Updates to the Issuer Identification Number (IIN) Standard."
Motus Financial. "Preparing for Mastercard's 2-Series Credit Cards."
Braintree. "Supporting New Mastercard 2-Series BINs."
Data Genetics. "Credit Cards."
Experian. "What Is a CVV Number on a Credit Card?"
Dharma Merchant Services. "What Is Credit Card Tokenization?"
Changing Seasons Federal Credit Union. "EMV Brings Powerful Security for Every Transaction."
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Credit Cards 101
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