Why are the first four digits of credit card numbers often printed twice?
Payments
Asked by Question Bot04/Jun/20121 answer
1 Answer
F
Faisal Khan
Answered 04/Jun/2012
I am going to guess here (so I could very well be wrong here). I assume, the the first 4 digits (which identify the issuing bank) are printed on all the cards (1000s) of them, without any embossed numbers, i.e. blank cards. These blank cards are sent from the card manufacturer to the Bank as just plain cards with no embossed numbers, and no name, CVV, no date, nothing.
Once the bank receives them and processes them, only then do they actually put the embossed number and details for each account holder.
This is only done for VISA / Mastercard cards, I haven't seen it on the Amex card. Presumably because millions of cards are manufactured, with all sorts of branding, the easiest way of identifying the cards (as to which bank they belong to) would be to inscribe the first 4-digits on the card.
Brian Roemmele could further added to this, he's got an excellent insight to such questions.
Once the bank receives them and processes them, only then do they actually put the embossed number and details for each account holder.
This is only done for VISA / Mastercard cards, I haven't seen it on the Amex card. Presumably because millions of cards are manufactured, with all sorts of branding, the easiest way of identifying the cards (as to which bank they belong to) would be to inscribe the first 4-digits on the card.
Brian Roemmele could further added to this, he's got an excellent insight to such questions.