Understand your credit card

Card design

Whilst the industry sets technical standards – like flexibility, flammability, toxicity (some people are allergic to some plastics) - the actual design is up to your card issuer. It can be as straightforward or unusual as they like

Chip

As can be seen in the figure above, the chip is actually a Golden coloured electronic chip on the left side of the card under the name Goldfish, and this is what is used in the so-called chip-n-pin. The chip or microchip, embedded into a debit or credit card, provides highly secure processing capabilities to carry out the card transaction, and that includes verifying that the correct PIN has been used. In addition to holding the same personal data as that on the magnetic stripe (i.e. cardholder name, card number and expiry date), the chip provides additional security features to safeguard against counterfeiting. The four digits of your PIN (personal identification number) are not held as a set of numbers on the chip.

Card scheme logo

As can be seen in the card design above, the logo may be wither of Mastercard, Visa, Visa Electron, Switch, Solo, Amex, Discover, etc.
This tells you which card scheme will be responsible for clearing payments and, where the symbol is displayed, which retailers will accept your card.

Hologram

The flashy silver colour hologram just under the Scheme logo.
An additional security feature to identify that the card is genuine

Expiry date

Along with the card number the card’s expiry date is essential to process a card payment.

Your name

The cardholder’s name is displayed at the bottom of the card.

Card number

Generally 16 digits but can be up to 19 – this identifies your account, with the first six digits comprising what is known as the BIN (Bank Identification Number) and this identifies your card issuer and the card scheme.

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