How to Verify a Card Issuer

Card issuers start off with the same string of numbers for easy identification.

When you own your own online retail shop and wish to create your own shopping cart, the shopping cart must verify who the card issuer is. When you verify the card issuer, you can program your shopping cart to automatically select who the card issuer is without user input. By automating the card issuer selection, you can make your checkout process faster and lower the chance of errors by your customer. With the right information, you can quickly verify who the card issuer is just by looking at the credit card numbers.

Instructions

1. Verify the customer has a Visa credit card. Newer Visa credit cards start with the number 4 and have 16 digits. Older Visa cards also start with the number 4, but have 13 digits.

2. Identify MasterCard credit cards. MasterCard starts with the numbers 51 through 55 and have 16 digits.

3. Verify an American Express card number. All American Express cards start with 34 or 37 and have 15 digits.

4. Identify Discover credit cards. Discover credit cards start with the number 6011 or 65 and have 16 digits.

5. Verify a Diners Club card. Diners Club cards start with the numbers 300 through 305 or 36 and 38. All Diners Club cards either have 14 numbers. Some Diners Club begin with 5 and have 16 digits.

Tips & Warnings

• You should hire a programmer to customize your online shopping cart to use the information provided in this article to automate the credit issuer selection process.

References

• Regular-Expressions.info: Finding or Verifying Credit Card Numbers
• CreditCards.com: What are Those Numbers on my Credit Card?