Geek Out

What Do All The Numbers On Your Credit Card Mean?

I always wondered how credit card companies came up with the digits on my Visa and AmEx. Random chance? Geographical location? Spending habits? Turns out all credit card companies follow the same set of rules. Here’s what the numbers mean:

I also didn’t know that there was a simple method to see if a credit card was fake or not. Smart, those credit card companies are. [Mint]

Discuss

(3 Comments)
  • [–]

    Francis

    Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 9:42 PM

    Why does that photo end with a *112 but the example equation is *113.

    Fail to me :P

    Reply
    • [–]

      Kade Miller

      Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 10:12 PM

      You will find that they aren’t allowed to make an image of a credit card with a valid number.

      Reply
  • [–]

    Kez

    Monday, January 24, 2011 at 1:15 AM

    I suspect the difference between the example picture and the equation is the example picture is a real sample and so doesn’t provide a valid cc number, while obviously one is needed for the maths to work.

    Reply

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