What credit cards number starting with 5 mean

Nowadays, each individual carries around with some credit cards in pocket for various personal payment. You must notice 15 to 16 digits number on the front, for example my credit card starting with 5- what exactly do those numbers stand for?

Structure of Credit Card Number

Yes, I found out my card number as 5 XXX XXX XXXX XXXX because it was issued by MasterCard, meaning all others will be starting with 5. A deeper look into it, the financial firms encode all credit cards to signify the system.

Now check your all cards you have and test basic simple rules as below:

• 3 for American Express/ Diner club
• 4 is reserved for Visa
• 5 for, sure, MasterCard
• 6 for Discover

The structure of the card number depends on card issuers like banks, credit union. Such as your credit card issued by Citi bank, the next 5 digits after 5 must be 46616.

On the back of each cards, there are additional digits (CVV/CVC) which are required for online payment for security purpose. CVV normally has 3 digits for MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and 4 digits on the front of American Express. Without CVV, all orders ain’t processed so you must keep it safe in the world of hackers.

How’s Different from Credit Card Number Vs Account Number?

Normally it’s totally differentiated by issuers, meaning your one bank account would link to many credit cards (in the same issuer). So when you lost, stolen, damaged or expired, the bank will give you a new card with a new credit card number but the system will merge this card with your primary account. For any reason, you don’t want it, request your bank in a direct way as they will be happy to do it in your way.

Do You Need to Care?

That’s more for credit card issuers and merchant, it does matter a little to users. But in term of protecting your credit card, you must notice that your first six digits on your card are as the same as others with the same sort of credit card. They might guess the other 9 digits randomly and it could be yours in some days. Thus, never let any body get your CVV/CVC and report the bank as long as you’re sure about losing your physical credit card or find suspicious payments.

Protect Your Money Always.