Credit Secrets & Tips Blog

You maybe carry at least 3 or more credit cards. Do you know what these digits in your credit card number mean?

Well, I can give you an idea. Although phone, gas and department stores have their own numbering systems, “ANSI Standard X4.13-1983″ is the system used by most national credit-card systems.

Here are what some of the numbers stand for:

The first digit identifies the type of card. For example,

- 3 is T&E cards
- 4 is Visa Card
- 5 is MasterCard
- 6 is Discover Card.

The structure of the card number varies by credit card system:

American Express - Digits three and four are type and currency, digits five through 11 are the account number, digits 12 through 14 are the card number within the account and digit 15 is a check digit.

Visa - Digits two through six are the bank number, digits seven through 12 or seven through 15 are the account number and digit 13 or 16 is a check digit.

MasterCard - Digits two and three, two through four, two through five or two through six are the bank number (depending on whether digit two is a 1, 2, 3 or other).

The digits after the bank number up through digit 15 are the account number, and digit 16 is a check digit.

 

 

Now, pull out one of your credit card, see if your can decode your credit card number.