The BIN Database and IIN Database for Merchant Lookup of Bank Identification Number List or Issuer Identification Number List

Posted: Oct 25, 2009 |Comments: 4 | Views: 4,152 |

The BIN Number or the IIN Number is the first 6 digits of the credit card number for all MasterCard, Visa, American Express (AMEX) or Discover credit cards and debit cards.

BIN stands for Bank Identification Number which is the same as the IIN, which stands for Issuer Identification Number. 

The BIN is very helpful in determining the following:

- Type of card (MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover)
     - MasterCard Starts with a 5, Visa with a 4, Amex with 3 and Discover with 6
- Debit or Credit or sometimes Gift Card
- Name of card issuing bank (Citibank MC, or Wells Fargo Visa Debit etc.)
- Phone number to call for code - 10 authorization or other questions
- Country of origin: US Card or from Canada? Nigerian or Russian MasterCard?

This information is published by American Express and Discover for merchants and available from Visa and MasterCard in the form of the Visa Interchange Directory for Visa BIN and the Mastercard Member Directory for MasterCard BIN Numbers.

For merchants that do not qualify for access to this list via their merchant provider, BIN lookup using a BIN database or BIN list can be difficult.  The most common uses are the following:

BIN List and BIN Lookup Applications:

- Determine if card is credit or debit
  - Different terms such as rental car or travel industry
  - Different fees to the customer for debit vs. credit
  - Decline transactions that don't fit the requirements

- Determine if card is from a valid country for the sale
  - Need to sell only to U.S. customers? Verify with a BIN check
  - Exclude countries with embargo orders or watched nations
  - Charge appropriate fees to foreign card holders

- Find out the bank phone number and bank name
  - Call in a code 10 authorization if you question the charge
  - Report suspicious activity and be sure of the transaction
  - Authenticate the cardholder with the right phone number

- Verify all information to reduce fraud in any industry

Incorporating a list of Bank Identification Numbers in an internal system like a website shopping cart, a call center check out screen, credit card authorization software, accounts receivable department or any other application where knowing the card type and contact information for the issuer is helpful.

The BIN Database and IIN List are under-utilized in many industries where merchants are scrambling for this information. If you cannot find the database from your merchant provider, consider a private source.

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    Discuss this Article


    Comments on this article

    0
    Sarah Sampson Sep 17, 2010
    The poster in the previous 3 comments is pointing all of these domain names as spam. All of these posts are the same person, promoting the same website which is actually just one guy who is based out of Moscow, Russia and not an actual, accountable U.S. company.
    0
    Jose Fernando Sep 13, 2010
    http://bindatabase.co.uk free bank identification number (bin) database - Issuer Identification Number (IIN). Search for the Visa or MasterCard issuer.
    0
    Ivan Nikolov Aug 31, 2010
    http://binchecker.org up to date bin database
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    Nikolai Ivanov Jul 31, 2010
    Good binlist at http://bindb.com
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