What Do the Numbers on Credit Cards Mean?

Credit cards have become one of the signs of financial freedom and stability. Almost everyone who have work have credit cards. And even if you’re not in the working class, having a credit card has become somewhat of a norm or a social status, if you will. It entails your confidence in your financial standing and your desire to improve your status by taking the responsibility of having a credit card.

However, before delving in the complicated and broad field of using credit cards, let us focus on the card itself. What does a credit card contain? What do the numbers mean? And why are there so much digits on it?

You should be aware first that it is the American National Standards Institute who is responsible for assigning credit card numbers to the card. The ANSI is a non-profit organization in representation of an estimated 3.5 million professionals along with 125,000 companies including Visa, MasterCard, and Citibank among others.

Let’s begin. A typical credit card will look like a standard rectangle piece of plastic the size of an id and other common cards. The front part which contains the brand name of the credit card company will also contain the full name of the cardholder. The 15 or 16 digit embossed numbers above the name is the account number. This is also where the expiration date is located.

At the back of the card is the black strip known as the magnetic stripe. It also contains the card holder's signature , a hologram, and the card security code.

The identity of your card is stored in the black magnetic strip because it is where the card number is. It indicates the networking from store to bank and vice-versa upon swiping the credit card.

The card number is a identification as you’ll see. The first digit (or first and second digit) in the sequence pinpoints the card issuer as classified in the following:

4 - Visa

5 - MasterCard

6 - Discover

34/37 - American Express

After identifying the card issuer, the remaining numbers define different things for each card company.

 

Visa

2nd through 6th:

bank number

7th through 15th (or 12th):

account number

16th (or 13th):

check digit

MasterCard

2nd and 3rd, 2nd and 4th, 2nd and 5th:

bank number

6th through 15th:

account number

16th:

check digit

American Express

3rd:

card type

(business/personal)

4th:

currency (American/Canadian)

5th through 11th:

account number

12th, 13th and 14th:

account number within the account

15th:

check digit

The check digit is there to validate the initial number of your card using the Luhn algorithm.