Card Type, Account Number and Expiration Date

Credit and debit cards bear several identification features that make them unique and help merchants and cardholders prevent their fraudulent use. These features are used during the transaction authorization process as well. Merchants should incorporate the following best practices to ensure that transactions are processed in a safe and secure fashion:

• Request that customers provide both the account number and the card type and ensure that they match. Consider applying the following procedures:
  
  • Request that customers select their card's type (Visa, American Express, MasterCard, Discover, etc.) before they enter the card's account number.
  • Verify the validity of the provided information by comparing the selected card type and the first digit of the provided card number. The credit card companies use different account numbering systems. The first digit of every payment card identifies its type. Listed in the table below are the first digits that the major American card brands place in their account numbers.
    
    

    Card Type	First Digit of Account Number
    American Express	3
    Visa	4
    MasterCard	5
    Discover	6

  
  
  • Display an error message if there is a mismatch between the selected card type and the provided account number and request that the customer re-enters the data.
  • Allow customers to enter card account numbers with or without hyphens, with or without spaces between digits, or clearly identify your preferred format.
    
• Request that customers provide their card's expiration date. You can either provide a blank field to be filled in by the customer or a pull-down menu from which the customer to make a selection. If you choose the latter option, make sure that you do not provide a default month and year of the expiration date to prevent the customer from erroneously select it. The default date will most likely be different from the actual one and the transaction will be declined.