Understand your Credit card /Debit card number

Credit card/Debit card numbers means a lot . Let explore this .A credit card or debit card can anywhere from twelve to nineteen digits long. Most credit cards/debit card consist of sixteen numbers.

The First Digit ( It is called a Major Industry Identifier)

    1 and 2 are Airline cards
    3 – Travel and Entertainment
 ex. Amex
    4, 5 – Banking and Financial
    ex. Visa, Mastercard
    6 – Merchandising and Banking
    ex. Discover, Diners Club
    7 – Petroleum
    8 – Telecom
    9 – Misc.

Digits 2 to 6 (Issuer ID)

Although all Visa cards start with the number 4, the following 5 digits indicate which bank that issued the Visa card. Mastercards start with 5, Discover starts with 6. You’ll notice that some websites don’t ask you what type of card you have — they obviously know what the digits on the card mean.

Digits 7to 15 (Account ID)

The unique number that identifies your account

Digit 16 (Checksum)

This single digit is one of the most important ones on the card. Much like the last digit of a barcode, the sole purpose of this digit is to allow validation of the rest of the number. In other words, there is a mathematical relationship between the numbers on the card, so if the number is entered incorrectly, the card validator system can indicate the card number was entered incorrectly.