How Do You Know Your Amex Account Number

10 Signs of a Valid American Express Carte du jour

American Limited cards are unique amidst the credit and debit cards issued by the major U.Southward. carte companies. Past that I don't mean that AmEx'due south card programs are all that different from their competitors'. Well, perhaps some of them are, but other issuers accept programs which are so similar to AmEx'southward that you would not be able to tell them apart, unless you saw the brand logos on the terms and conditions disclosure.

The uniqueness of American Express cards tin can exist found in some of the security features on their cards. In this post I will review these features and volition explain how to recognize their validity. Below you will discover the answers to the post-obit questions:

• What is the American Express carte number format?
• What exercise American Express numbers start with?
• What is the American Express carte du jour number length / how many digits does an AmEx card take?
• How do you recognize a valid AmEx number?
• What are the AmEx security features and how to recognize a counterfeit card?
• How do y'all recognize a potentially fraudulent AmEx transactions?
• What are AmEx's fraud procedures?

Let'southward go started.

American Express Card Number Format and Security Features

There are several different types of American Express cards and not all of them will display all of the security features listed below, but almost of them will. Moreover, the American Express carte number format will always exist the aforementioned. Here is how to recognize a valid AmEx card:

1. What does the AmEx card number showtime with? All American Limited carte account numbers are embossed and begin with "37" or "34". This dominion applies to all AmEx cards. By comparison, Visa card numbers begin with "4," MasterCard'southward commencement with "v" and Detect'southward — with "6".
2. What is the American Limited card number length and how is it formatted? AmEx account numbers are embossed, xv-digit long, with no alterations and spaced in three blocks of four, vi and 5 digits from left to right: "3xxx xxxxxx xxxxx". This is another unique AmEx security feature. In contrast, Visa, MasterCard and Discover numbers are all sixteen-digit long and spaced in four groups of four digits each.

   
   The AmEx bill of fare number format complies with the rules set up past the American National Standards Found (ANSI), which is the arrangement charged with the chore of allocating issuer identification numbers (IINs) to the card networks. For all networks, the IIN is always comprised of the first half-dozen digits of the carte du jour number and in the epitome to your right information technology is "375987".

3. What is the AmEx Bill of fare Identification Number? The Card Identification Number (CID) is AmEx's card security code and is the equivalent to Visa'south CVV2, MasterCard's CVC ii and Notice's CID. Unlike its competitors who all employ three-digit formats and identify them on the dorsum of their cards, either in or immediately to the correct of the signature panel, AmEx's CID is four-digit long and is printed above the embossed menu number on the right or left side of the card's face.
4. Where is the cardholder name located? The cardholder name is printed in the lower left corner of AmEx cards, just as the rival payment networks practice it.
5. Where is the AmEx account opening date located? The "Member Since" date is embossed to the right of the expiration engagement. By comparing, Visa, MasterCard and Discover all place the "Fellow member Since" engagement to the left of the expiration 1.
6. Where is the AmEx expiration date and how is it formatted? The expiration, or "Valid Thru," engagement is embossed above the cardholder name field, in the format "mm/yy".
7. How should the Centurion image look like? The Centurion image is of course unique to the brand (not to mention trademarked). Information technology is present on some, but not all, of the company's cards, information technology is phosphorescent and the words "AMEX" are visible under UV lite.
8. Where is the hologram located? Some AmEx cards characteristic a hologram of the Centurion image embedded into the magnetic stripe.
9. How does the AmEx card number look like if printed within the magazine stripe? Also uniquely, the account number is printed inside the signature field of nigh AmEx cards and it must match the embossed ane on the front of the card and the one printed on the transaction receipt. In contrast, the competitors only print the last four digits of their card numbers in the signature field.
10. Where is the signature stripe located? The signature field is located below the magnetic stripe, much as it is on Visa, MasterCard and Discover cards. The words "Cardmember Signature" are printed underneath it.

Again, some AmEx cards will not display all of the above security features. For case, y'all volition non meet the Centurion image on American Limited Bluish cards and there may exist other missing features. Withal, any security features that are present must adhere to the above specifications.

How to Validate AmEx Card Numbers

AmEx card numbers, as well as most other credit carte numbers, can be validated using the Luhn algorithm (also known equally the Luhn formula or the "modulus 10" or "mod 10" algorithm). It is a very uncomplicated procedure, which verifies the card number in the following manner:

1. Starting from the rightmost digit, called the "check digit", moving left, double the value of every other digit (in fact, as AmEx numbers are comprised of odd-numbered digits — 15 — it doesn't matter whether you start from right or left). If the resulting sum of each doubling operation is greater than ix (e.thousand. 5 x 2 = ten), then add the digits of these sums (e.thousand., 10: 1 + 0 = 1 or 18: i + viii = ix).
2. Add up all the resulting digits, including the odd ones, which were not doubled.
3. If the resulting total ends in 0, the card number is valid according to the Luhn formula; otherwise it is not valid.

For example, let'southward validate the post-obit AmEx number: "371238839571772". Here is what nosotros go when we follow our three-step process:

Account number	3	seven	one	two	iii	viii	viii	three	9	5	7	ane	7	vii	2
Double every other digit	3	14	1	iv	3	xvi	eight	half dozen	9	x	7	2	7	xiv	2
Sum	3	five	1	4	three	7	8	6	nine	one	seven	2	7	5	ii	70

The end result — lxx — ends in 0, and so our number passes the Luhn algorithm test. Of class, the number's validity does not eliminate the possibility that the menu may still be counterfeit, as we volition see in the next paragraph.

How to Recognize a Counterfeit AmEx Card

Altered cards are "real" in the sense that they can exist processed for payment, merely are changed to exist passed off as another carte du jour. Please review the items below and if you lot detect yourself in such a situation, you may be dealing with an contradistinct card.

1. Overall appearance of the card:

• Does any part of the carte wait dull compared with the rest of the Card? (Valid American Express cards take a high-gloss cease.) Of course, cards can wear out after a few months of heavy use, so be conscientious with this 1.
• Is the card'south surface bumpy or is the card bent around the edges?

2. Front of the card:

• Is the black ink on the embossed card number or the cardholder proper name smudged or messy?
• Practise the embossed numbers appear to exist out of line, kleptomaniacal or misspaced?/li>
• Is the card number or cardholder proper name printed in a typeface that is dissimilar from the American Limited typeface?
• Do any "halos" of previous numbers appear under the embossed account number?
• Does the name printed on the sales receipt non match the proper name embossed on the front of the carte du jour?

3. Back of the menu:

• Does the card number on the sales receipt not lucifer the number imprinted within the signatures panel on the back?
• Is the card number printed on the back dissimilar from the number embossed on the front or has it been chipped off or covered up?
• Is the magnetic stripe deliberately scratched or destroyed, forcing y'all to manually key-enter the business relationship number?
• Is the signature console on the dorsum whited out with some correction fluid, taped over or erased?

If any of these suspicious conditions apply, follow your store procedures or call American Express Authorizations at 1-800-528-2121 and country that you lot are making a "Code 10" call. You will and so be instructed how to proceed with the transaction.

How to Accept AmEx Payments

Every time a customer presents the American Express card for payment at your store, practise the following:

1. Swipe the card or have its imprint. If you process American Express payments electronically, swipe the card through your point-of-sale (POS) terminal. If the magnetic stripe cannot be read and y'all take to manually key-enter the transaction data, an you volition have to take an imprint of the card.
2. Obtain a transaction authorization. You lot are required to obtain a half dozen-digit blessing code for each AmEx transaction. The potency process volition be handled by your payment processor.
3. Verify that your client is the authorized cardholder. The American Express carte is not transferable, meaning that only its authorized holder tin use information technology for payment.
4. Verify that the menu is not expired. I've already showed you where the expiration date is located and in what format information technology should exist. Be advised that no AmEx carte du jour can exist used past its "Valid Thru" date.
5. Match the embossed number on the front of the menu to the one on its back and to the one on the sales receipt. If a different number is printed on the sales receipt, this could indicate that the menu has been altered or otherwise tampered with. If that is the case, call American Express Authorizations at 1-800-528-2121 and immediately state that y'all are making a "Lawmaking x" call. The operator will then ask you a series of "yes" and "no" questions and will instruct you lot how to go along with the transaction.
6. Compare your client's signature on the sales receipt to the one on the back of the carte du jour. Make certain that the two signatures reasonably match each other and correspond to the name embossed on the front of the card.
7. Compare the name that is printed out on the sales receipt to the 1 embossed on the front of the card. If the two names practise not match each other, telephone call American Express Authorizations at 1-800-528-2121 and state that yous are making a "Code x" call.

Follow these steps every time y'all accept an AmEx card for payment and implement the fraud prevention procedures that follow.

How to Identify Fraud

You will demand to exist able to place counterfeit AmEx cards and suspicious customer beliefs, which may indicate fraud. Listed beneath are the most prominent signs of potentially fraudulent card transactions and the best practices for responding to them.

• Question a transaction where the signature on the sales receipt does not friction match the one on the bill of fare, or does not wait like the proper noun embossed on the front of the Card. If that is the case, brand a Lawmaking 10 call (meet above).
• Be wary of customers who buy large quantities of expensive merchandise without paying much attending to things similar color, size or product feature or, in the instance of wear, without trying them on. Such customers, if committing fraud, often come up in just before endmost time. Criminals also try to take reward of decorated shopping days and crowds, when sales people may exist overwhelmed and less attentive.
• Expect out for customers who come in ofttimes to make small purchases with cash then return to make additional purchases of very expensive items, just this time paying with a credit card.
• Criminals are often rude and rushing sales people in the promise of distracting them.
• Make sure that the card is non expired.
• Exercise not accept cards that look to be physically altered (for example, painted-out signature panels or re-embossed names and business relationship numbers). See above for details on AmEx carte du jour security features. For instance, in the prototype to the right, the card'south signature panel has been altered. How practice y'all know? Well, we can immediately see that the menu's 15-digit number is non printed within the signature panel, as it should exist.
• If the account number embossed on the front of an AmEx card does not match the ane printed on the back of the card as well as on the sales receipt (as is the example in the image to the right, where it is missing altogether), the card may have been altered.
• Exercise not process payments in which your customer does not present her bill of fare, only gives you its account numbers from retentiveness, a sideslip of paper or an old sales receipt.
• Exist on alert if your client has signed the card with a felt tip pen or asks to run across the card before signing the sales receipt (that assumes that you take the card in your possession throughout the payment process, which yous should exist doing in order to audit its security features).
• Remember that only the person whose name is embossed on the front of the card is authorized to use information technology — the card is not transferable.

If you lot suspect fraud, either call American Express Authorization at 1-800-528-2121 and tell the operator of your concerns or follow your store's established security procedures.

The Takeaway

As you see, AmEx cards are easy to tell apart from cards of the other major brands. More than chiefly, their security features help you verify each card's validity. That is, if you are paying attention. Yous should examine each card presented for payment, while y'all are awaiting the potency approval. Make certain all alphanumeric digits are clear and even and treat any fuzziness equally a sign that the bill of fare may accept been tampered with. The same applies to cards where the Centurion is not phosphorescent or the hologram image is non irresolute as you are changing the angle at which you are viewing it. Of grade, the signature on the card must match the one on the sales receipt.

If yous go suspicious of either the carte or the cardholder's behavior, you lot should make a Code 10 call to your payment processing provider'south potency eye and follow their instructions on how to go on with the transaction.

Paradigm credit: Wikimedia Commons.

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Source: https://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/10-signs-of-a-valid-american-express-card/

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