Credit Card Bin Numbers Explained

Many credit card users get confused by the different terms used to define the use of a credit card. They may not understand what credit card bin numbers refer to and many do not also understand what a BIN or Bank Identification Number is. A BIN refers to a set of digits (usually the first prefixed six digits) of a credit card. These numbers are different for Visa credit cards, MasterCard credit cards and for other kinds of credit cards and are also used in the credit card bin numbers.

Learn about who issued the card

Credit card bin numbers are normally used for identifying the issuer of a particular credit card. If you transact business in the online world and you want to ensure that you do not get duped by credit card fraudsters then it is in your best interests to find out more about credit card bin numbers. Even before looking at what credit card bin numbers are, you should take a close look at what a bin list is and how it can be useful in helping you to validate a transaction involving a credit card.

How to deal with discrepancies?

There are times when there are discrepancies in a credit card's information. For example, when you check credit card bin numbers, you will find that the billing address points to one country while the bank operates in another country. In order to validate this information, it is necessary to use credit card bin numbers.

Card type information

These credit card bin numbers help merchants find out how to learn about the type of card and whether it is a prepaid, debit or credit card. Once this information is known, then the merchant can at least hope that the credit card bin numbers pointed to a card that is genuine. If there is any discrepancy shown after entering the credit card bin numbers, then it is time to suspect that a credit card fraud is about to be perpetrated.

With credit card bin numbers, merchants can tap a bin list to find out what type of card the customer has presented and at the same time, they need to understand that prepaid cards are very prone to being used for credit card fraud. Countries such as China, Russia, Indonesia and Nigeria in particular have been ranked as the countries where credit card fraud is most rampant. There are reasons for this which is why merchants must take special care when dealing with credit cards from these countries. They need to ensure that the credit card bin numbers provided are correct. For this, they must inspect the prepaid flags and country of issue flags as those can indicate the authenticity of the card in the best manner possible.

There are several different bin lists that you need to know about. If you are using credit card bin numbers that refer to an Amex card then be sure to look at the Amex bin list. For MasterCard, you will need to refer to a MasterCard bin list and so on.

The more you tap a BIN list that pertains to a particular credit card, the easier it becomes to use credit card bin numbers to help validate the credit card that you are dealing with.