Ecommerce Shopping Cart - Search Engine Marketing Software

What You Didnt Know About Your Credit Card Numbers

Have you ever really looked at your credit card and tried to figure out what that huge string of numbers really means? Do these card issuers have so many customers that your account number has to be 16 digits long?

You may be surprised to know that all those numbers you see actually do stand for something, and it's not just who you are. Let's take a look.

Most of the major credit card companies operate on the same system when choosing a credit card number. Other cards like gas cards, department store cards and phone cards go their own way. Let's concentrate on the ones that all play by the same rules.

The very first digit in the series will be a 3,4,5, 0r 6. This number designates the type of card as follows:

3 = a Travel & Entertainment Card like American Express or Diners Club.

4 = Visa and Visa-branded debit cards, cash cards, etc.

5 = MasterCard and MasterCard-branded debit cards, cash cards, etc.

6 = Discover

American Express and Diners Club use the second digit to identify the company. That means that Diners Club cards will start with either "36" or "38", and American Express cards will use either "34" or "37".

The remaining numbers in the series are used for different purposes depending upon the card type and issuer.

In most cases, the next group after the opening series of numbers represents the routing number of the card-issuing bank, the group after that is the user's account number, and the final digit is a check digit. The check digit is a number that is calculated by applying a special formula to all of the other numbers. The check digit is the result of that formula and is used as an anti-fraud check.

To keep things from getting too confusing, look at your card as you follow along for the next steps.

American Express

The American Express Card uses digits three and four for type (business or personal) and the currency of the cardholder's country of origin. The next digits from the fifth through the eleventh are account numbers.

Digits twelve through fourteen indicate the card number within the account and the last digit is the check digit.

Visa

With Visa, digits two through six represent the bank number. Beginning with the seventh digit and running through the twelfth or the fifteenth represents the account number and the last number is the check digit.

Since all Visa cards do not have the same amount of numbers in the sequence, the number of digits in a group may vary.

MasterCard

For MasterCard, the second digit, through to anywhere between the third and the sixth digit is the bank number. All remaining digits, except the check digit at the end of the series, identifies that cardholder's account.

Now that we've gone over it all, you're probably wondering why you were ever wondering in the first place. Just remember though, knowledge is power. Some things are just fun to know.

Ewen Chia is the owner of Free-Credit-Card-Offer.com which provides free credit card information for everyone. Click here to learn more plus receive a free credit card instantly! ==> http://www.Free-Credit-Card-Offer.com

Shopping Cart Uses Top Google Keywords to Maximize Revenue
Ecommerce shopping cart hosting uses search engine marketing software to sell products online. Use top paying Google keywords and PPC campaigns to maximize revenue and boost your income stream. Get a merchant account for credit card processing and make money on the internet with merchandise sales.

MORE ARTICLES:

Credit Card Processing - 7 Things You Need to Know Before Opening an Online Merchant Account
When considering opening an online merchant account to accept credit card orders, there are a lot of things you need to keep in mind. The best thing to do is learn all about credit card processing before you open your online merchant account so you can handle everything from the beginning rather than having to go back and make many changes.

eCommerce Solution - Shopping Cart Software
Build Your Own Ecommerce Website Ecommerce has been the rage for the online community. Now over half of the world prefers to do shopping on Internet through various ecommerce stores. Every businessperson wants to build own an ecommerce website in order to get their business an impressive online presence and an ultimate global exposure. If you are also running a business and are looking for a perfect way out to reach the millions of customers from all over the world, there is no other way to do this than building an ecommerce website. However, if you are planning to build your own ecommerce website, you should not that it is not an easy task to do. You need to look into several factors. Let us go exploring. Professional Design W...

Xonca Ecommerce Shopping Cart Software Released
Ecommerce software company Arquan releases search engine friendly Xonca shopping cart software for web designers and SEO professionals.

Advertising Your Work From Home Internet Business With PPC Search Engines
If you want to make money online with a work from home business then you are going to need lots of good targeted traffic to your web site and or affiliate links. One way to get good targeted traffic is to pay for it.

Internet Marketing - How to Make your Online Advertising Business Produce Money on Internet Marketing
The success or failure of your Internet marketing business depends largely on the Internet users. If they are interested on the products and services that you are offering for sale, definitely you can expect hundreds to thousands of dollars in revenues from your online business. On the other hand, if they are just too lazy to hear what you want to say and what you are offering, better shut down your personal computer unit and find some other ways of earning money.

Comparison Shopping Search Engines Equal Big Profits for Online Merchants
Holiday shoppers are expected to spend $32 billion online this season, with purchases happening well past ground shipping cutoff dates. That's according to "Online Retail Holiday Forecast, 2006," a report from JupiterResearch.

Top eCommerce Software Blogger Linda Bustos Wins Search Engine Marketing Scholarship
Elastic Path Software Blog "Get Elastic" educates webmasters on analytics, search marketing and eCommerce best practices.

Shopping Cart Software - Making Internet Shopping Easier
People are increasingly turning to the Internet when they want to earn extra income or even begin earning a primary income from home. So many different jobs and sources of revenue on the Internet have evolved over the years that making money on the Internet has become quite easy. If you think about it, it's obvious why. The Internet can reach more customers than a physical store location can.

PPC Marketing, PPC Advertising, Pay Per Click, Internet Marketing
PPC Means ProsPerous Campaigns!

Accept Credit Cards Online Without a Merchant Account
There are two major ways to accept credit cards on your website. The first and most expensive is to have your own merchant account.

4 Reasons Why You Must Try PPC Search Engine Internet Marketing
PPC (or Pay Per Click for those not in the know) search engine internet marketing is a form of internet advertising model that uses the power of the search engine, the flexibility and connectivity of advertising networks and a whole host of content based people pulling websites to generate audience volume

Website Marketing Firm Brick Marketing Launches Local Search Engine Marketing Product at Brick Marketing Local
Brick Marketing, a respected full-service website marketing firm known for its success in increasing the sales of clients through online marketing, has launched a new local search engine marketing product. The new local online marketing package gives brick and mortar businesses the opportunity to achieve higher exposure in a wide range of local search engines.

Apply For A Credit Card Merchant Account Online
Who should? Why, you should, of course, if you want to grow your business and maximize sales volume! In this day and age, more and more business functions are moving into cyberspace, which means that business owners must be ready to travel to this relatively unknown domain if they want to maintain strong customer ties and stay a step or two ahead of the competition. Dont worry if youre not Web savvy; most online processes that are geared to the general consumer are not hard to perform. In fact, most are downright easy.

Merchant Account Insider Secrets - Accept Credit Cards Online
The process of learning how to accept payments on the Internet is similar to the course of figuring out how to launch a business. What at first seems puzzling and intimidating may be viewed as straightforward and easy to understand if one has the right guide or manual.