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American Express and Diners Club use the second digit to
identify the company. That means that Diners Club cards will
start with either "36" or "38", and American Express cards will
use either "34" or "37".
The remaining numbers in the series are used for different
purposes depending upon the card type and issuer.
In most cases, the next group after the opening series of
numbers represents the routing number of the card-issuing bank,
the group after that is the user's account number, and the final
digit is a check digit. The check digit is a number that is
calculated by applying a special formula to all of the other
numbers. The check digit is the result of that formula and is
used as an anti-fraud check.
To keep things from getting too confusing, look at your card as
you follow along for the next steps.
American Express
The American Express Card uses digits three and four for type
(business or personal) and the currency of the cardholder's
country of origin. The next digits from the fifth through the
eleventh are account numbers. Digits twelve through fourteen
indicate the card number within the account and the last digit
is the check digit.
Visa
With Visa, digits two through six represent the bank number.
Beginning with the seventh digit and running through the twelfth
or the fifteenth represents the account number and the last
number is the check digit. Since all Visa cards do not have the
same amount of numbers in the sequence, the number of digits in
a group may vary.
MasterCard
For MasterCard, the second digit, through to anywhere between
the third and the sixth digit is the bank number. All remaining
digits, except the check digit at the end of the series,
identifies that cardholder's account.
Now that we've gone over it all, you're probably wondering why
you were ever wondering in the first place. Just remember
though, knowledge is power. Some things are just fun to know.
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