Online BIN Numbers - A Complete Guide

Are you an online merchant? If yes, then I bet you that tackling credit card fraud is always a challenges.

10:56 10 August 2020

In more often than not, plastic card processors usually return limited information regarding transactions submitted to them. In most cases, they only return decline or approved messages.

 

As an online merchant, you will be handling transactions in situations where a card holder is not physically present. In the same note, some of your customers will make transactions through their cards without the card itself. In such situations, you will be forced to rely on the limited information made available to you. Such limited information might not be enough to satisfactorily verify a transaction made using a plastic card. In case you don’t know, plastic cards include debit cards, prepaid card, gift cards, and credit cards.

 

Without having enough information to verify transactions your customers are making online, you might be a victim of fraud. You need enough information to authenticate transactions made using plastic cards. This is where a Bank Identification Number (BIN) lookup comes in.

A BIN lookup is a tool that helps you verify transactions made through plastic cards in a satisfactory manner. With Bank Identification Number (BIN) lookup, you will be able to gather enough information regarding all credit cards. So, even if your processor provides only limited information, you will still be able to access all the details.

 

Details you can find by using a BIN Checker Tool

 

As mentioned before, a BIN lookup is a tool that can help you get all the details about a credit card. Some of the information you will be able to gather with the help of a BIN lookup include the following:

 

• Card brand

 

A BIN lookup will help you identify whether the card being used is a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express.

 

• Name of card issuing bank or institution

 

The name of card issuing bank or institution is a very important piece of information when trying to authenticate a transaction. A BIN lookup will reveal to you this information without a hustle.

 

• Contact number of card issuing bank

 

A BIN lookup also helps you find the details of the card issuer such as its phone number and address.

 

• Country of card issuing bank

 

With a good BIN lookup, you will also be able to find the country where the card issuer is located.

 

• Type of card

 

Through the use of a BIN lookup, you will also find what type of a card is being used.

 

How Online BIN List Help Merchants?

 

A Bank Identification Number (BIN) lookup is a tool that online merchants can use to find details of plastic cards. If you are providing financial services, then you know how important the detailed information about plastic cards is.

Credit cards, prepaid cards, debit cards as well as gift cards have become very popular. They provide us with unlimited opportunities as well as possibilities. As a merchant, these cards enable you sell to people from all over the world. As a card holder, your card enables you to shop and pay for services from wherever you are.

 

However, these cards can also make companies and cardholders lose money to fraudsters sometimes. This usually happens when a card is used by someone else other than the cardholder, but poses as the real owner. It can also happen when a fraudster gets the password of a card and uses it to make transactions.

 

To protect your business from fraudsters, you should verify all the transactions. You can only do this if you can access the details of plastic cards. Bank Identification Number is what contains whatever information you need about a card.  Abbreviated as BIN, bank identification number refers to the first 6 digits of a plastic card number.

 

BIN database is huge that contains details of hundreds of thousands of credit cards, gift cards, prepaid cards as well as debit cards. For this reason, it is almost impossible for you to find the information you need from a BIN manually. A BIN lookup is a tool designed to help you find the details of a particular plastic card within no time. When using a BIN lookup tool, you can be able to find all the details you need to authenticate an online transaction.

 

A BIN lookup can help in the following ways:

 

• Decrease fraud

 

Empowered with pieces of important information from a BIN, you can easily spot suspicious payments. In such situations, you will introduce measures to stop or reduce fraud. In other words, BIN lookup provides you with the information you need to block suspicious payments.

 

• Increase security

 

By blocking possible frauds by using a BIN lookup services, you protect your business from losing money. For instance, if you detect many suspicious transactions from a particular country, you can flag their orders for review.

 

• Improves compliance standing of a company

 

By putting stricter measures in place to deal with inconsistencies during transactions, you improve your compliance standing.