Credit Card Truncation Law

Hiding from sharks.

Credit card truncation is a legal requirement: banks and merchants with credit card machines must hide all but the last four or five digits of an account number, on printed receipts given to customers.

Truncation

Traditionally, receipts included sensitive information and looked like this:

Account # 1234 5678 5555 9999
Expires 14/11

In the new truncated receipts, crucial information is hidden for your protection:

Account # **** **** **** 9999
Expires **/**

History

As of July 1, 2006, all new and existing terminals had to be truncation compliant.

Federal Law

The federal law related to truncation is called FACTA, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act. It applies to credit cards, debit cards, and social security numbers.

Exceptions

FACTA does not apply to receipts for which the sole means of recording a credit or debt card number is by handwriting, or by an imprint or copy of the card.

Penalties

The penalty for a first truncation violation is $5,000 and penalties increase with repeated violations. The charge for willful or egregious violation is $500,000 a month. These are just the Visa/MasterCard penalties. There may also be federal and state penalties (just the state penalties can be up to $10,000 per transaction).

References

• Merchant Equpiment Store: The Facts about Credit Card Truncation
• FTC: Slip Showing? Federal Law Requires All Businesses to Truncate Credit Card Information on Receipts
• Merchant Source: Account Truncation Law

Resources

• What Every Merchant Should Know: Credit Card Processing Info