Credit or debit cards have become part of our daily lives, but have you ever wondered what the numbers on your credit card mean?

Each of those digits has a reason, don’t think someone just thought of putting them there. In fact, they have been determined under ISO/IEC 7812, International Standards Organization.

What do the numbers on the front of credit card mean?

In addition to the name of the bank and the cardholder, you will also find the number of the credit card, which is made up of 16 digits, grouped 4 by 4 for easy identification.

The first 4 digits refer to the identification number of the entity issuing the card. For example:

• If it starts with a 4, we can tell you that the plastic belongs to Visa.
• If it starts with a 5 is MasterCard
• If it’s a 3, it’s American Express.
• If you have a 6 as the first digit, it could be from some business

From digit 5 onwards, they identify the cardholder and the account to which it is associated.

The last digit of the plastic corresponds to a security number, which is used for transaction verification and is the result of an algorithm produced by the other card numbers.

On the front of your plastic, you will also find the expiration date marked with the month and year. Also, in some of them you can see the year from which you have that card.

Why there is a security chip on your credit card?

Electronic chip is the soul of the card. You may remember that some years ago the cards only had the magnetic stripe, but now, for security reasons, financial institutions embedded electronic chips on the card.

The great goodness of this system is that it avoids identity theft, since it transfers data instead of storing it.

What is CVV and what does it mean?

On the back you can see the magnetic stripe and the box corresponding to the card holder’s signature, but right next to it you must locate one of the most important numbers: the Card Validation Value or CVV (Card Verification Code).

Although sometimes you can also find it on the face of the card, is a number of 3 or 4 digits that serves to validate your card. It is like a security feature that is used to verify that the customer who makes the purchase using the card. Usually this applies to purchases over the Internet and even over the phone.

Now that you know all the information that has your credit card, do not forget to use it responsibly only as a means of payment and not as an extension of your salary. After all, this in not the prime purpose of the credit card.