Bank Identification numbers shortly called as BIN serves as identification tools to verify the genuine nature of credit card transactions. They are also called as Issuer Identification Number since they serve mainly to locate the issuing bank.
The bin numbers were comprised into a database by the American Bankers Association. The BIN database can be used to verify the details of all types of financial cards. The list of bank identification numbers includes all debit, credit and charge cards. This bin list is accessible only to the members of American bankers association.
With the emergence of others finance players free as well as licensed bin databases with partial or complete list of bank identification numbers were developed. Free BIN list have limited BIN numbers and therefore the list of bank identification numbers is of less use especially to firms which require large number of online credit card transactions.
Types of List of Bank Identification Numbers
Although all bin databases contain the same BIN numbers, the list of bank identification numbers can be classified into two types. This classification is based on the purpose of the BIN list rather than its contents.
The bin to bank list searches the results to show the name of the issuing organisation. The bin to country list is rather superficial and limits its search to the country of issue.
Apart from these there are bin list which contain the list of bank identification numbers pertaining to specific service providers. For example, the BIN VISA list of bank identification numbers contain only BIN numbers of only cards issued under VISA category similarly there are exclusive bin list for master cards, American Express cards, Discover Cards, Exxon Cards etc.
Contents of the list of Bank Identification Numbers
The List of Bank identification numbers contain the bin number and the details of the specified card in eleven different fields. The first digit of the card is called the MII (Major Industry Identifier). This signifies the service provider of the card whether belonging to business, banking, travel, petroleum etc. For example, VISA and Master Cards start with the MII numeric four and five respectively denoting that both belong to banking and finance industry.
The next five digits along with MII are designated as Bank Identification Number. These digits signifies the other fields of the record such as name of the issuing institution, type of card, nature of card, address, contact details like phone number, web site address etc.
The licensed bin databases derive their list of bank identification numbers from free sources of information like the wiki and other web pages. The bin numbers are computer generated and hence the accuracy can be questionable. The licensed list of bank identification numbers is more accurate since they derive the data from the service providers and credit card claim processing firms. The reliability of the data is however depending on the updated information provided by service providers which in most cases are irregular. Before choosing a specific list of bank identification numbers for credit card verification one has to ensure the accuracy, reliability and compatibility.
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