hi,
It is worth knowing about this. Check it out..........
Regards,
Soumya Shankar
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Credit Cards (Lun MOD 10)
The length of a credit card can be either 13 or 15 or 16 characters. The first digit is called the MIF or the major industry identifier. The various values are as follows.
0 ISO/TC 68 and Other Industries
1 Airlines
2 Airlines and Other Industries
3 Travel and Entertainment
4 Banking and Financial
5 Banking and Financial
6 Merchandizing and Banking
7 Petroleum
8 Telecommunications and Other Industries
9 National ( Local Use )
Most of us will carry credit cards beginning with 4 or 5. A petrol card will begin with 7. The first 4 to 6 digits are called the issuers code and they tell us which entity issued us the card. Some well known issuers are as.
Issuer's Code
The first four digits
Card Issuer
Number of Digits
3000 to 3059
3600 to 3699
3800 to 3889
Diners Club
14
3400 to 3499
3700 to 3799
American Express
15
3528 to 3589
JCB
16
3890 to 3899
Carte Blanche
14
4000 to 4999
Visa
13 or 16
5100 to 5599
MasterCard
16
5610
Australian BankCard
16
6011
Discover / Novus
16
The remaining 10-12 bits are the actual credit card number. These numbers are not just randomly generated by the credit card companies but are generated such that they meet a certain rule. This rule or algorithm called the Luhn algorithm. The International Standards Organization (ISO/IEC 7812-1:1993) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI X4.13) have now standardized on the above algorithm for credit card number validation.
Lets take a dummy Visa card and apply the Luhn algorithm to it.
4567 1234 5678 9129
We first start from the right and this last digit is called the check sum. We start with the rightmost –1 digit and multiply every other digit by 2.
4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 9
8 12 2 6 10 14 18 4
We then subtract 9 from any number larger than 10. Thus we get.
8 3 2 6 1 5 9 4.
Another way out is by adding the individual digits.
We then add them all up to get
38
We then add all the other digits to get
42
The sum of the two is 80 which will add up to a number divisible by 10. Thus the above algorithm is called the Luhn modulus 10. The last digit is called the check digit as it is the one used to make sure that we get a final number divisible by 10. We have a 90% reliability with the Luhn algorithm.
It is worth knowing about this. Check it out..........
Regards,
Soumya Shankar
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Credit Cards (Lun MOD 10)
The length of a credit card can be either 13 or 15 or 16 characters. The first digit is called the MIF or the major industry identifier. The various values are as follows.
0 ISO/TC 68 and Other Industries
1 Airlines
2 Airlines and Other Industries
3 Travel and Entertainment
4 Banking and Financial
5 Banking and Financial
6 Merchandizing and Banking
7 Petroleum
8 Telecommunications and Other Industries
9 National ( Local Use )
Most of us will carry credit cards beginning with 4 or 5. A petrol card will begin with 7. The first 4 to 6 digits are called the issuers code and they tell us which entity issued us the card. Some well known issuers are as.
Issuer's Code
The first four digits
Card Issuer
Number of Digits
3000 to 3059
3600 to 3699
3800 to 3889
Diners Club
14
3400 to 3499
3700 to 3799
American Express
15
3528 to 3589
JCB
16
3890 to 3899
Carte Blanche
14
4000 to 4999
Visa
13 or 16
5100 to 5599
MasterCard
16
5610
Australian BankCard
16
6011
Discover / Novus
16
The remaining 10-12 bits are the actual credit card number. These numbers are not just randomly generated by the credit card companies but are generated such that they meet a certain rule. This rule or algorithm called the Luhn algorithm. The International Standards Organization (ISO/IEC 7812-1:1993) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI X4.13) have now standardized on the above algorithm for credit card number validation.
Lets take a dummy Visa card and apply the Luhn algorithm to it.
4567 1234 5678 9129
We first start from the right and this last digit is called the check sum. We start with the rightmost –1 digit and multiply every other digit by 2.
4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 9
8 12 2 6 10 14 18 4
We then subtract 9 from any number larger than 10. Thus we get.
8 3 2 6 1 5 9 4.
Another way out is by adding the individual digits.
We then add them all up to get
38
We then add all the other digits to get
42
The sum of the two is 80 which will add up to a number divisible by 10. Thus the above algorithm is called the Luhn modulus 10. The last digit is called the check digit as it is the one used to make sure that we get a final number divisible by 10. We have a 90% reliability with the Luhn algorithm.