What constitutes a Valid Credit Card Number?

A valid credit card number (also known as Primary Account Number - PAN) has several fields and each of them has a meaning. For the technically inclined, this number complies to the ISO/IEC 7812 numbering standard. An contains a six-digit issuer identification number (IIN), an individual account identification number, and a single digit checksum.

The first digit of the issuer identification number is the major industry identifier (MII). It identifies the industry where the card will be most used in. If this digit is 9 the next three digits are the country code from ISO 3166-1.

The issuer identification number also known as the bank identification number (BIN) is the first six digits of the credit card number. These identify the institution that issued the credit card to the card holder. Here's a list of known IIN prefixes.

Afterwards comes the account number, digit 7 to last minus one. The maximum length of the account number is 12 digits. This is an individual account identifier.

The last digit is the checksum which we explained how to calculate using the MOD 10 algorithm. It is used to validate the primary account number to protect against accidental errors.

What do we mean by Valid Credit Card Numbers?

The credit card numbers you generate on this page are completely random. When we say they are valid, we merely imply that they are a possible combination of characters which will validate when passed through the MOD 10 algorithm. You can also generate valid credit card numbers for specific Issuing Networks by utilising their particular prefixes. However, we do not provide you (obviously) with the correspondent verification code for these cards, as they are completely fake and made up randomly.

To be completely clear and spell this out, these fake credit card numbers should not be used to try and purchase stuff. They merely respect guidelines of a valid credit card number. I advise you not not to try to use these for any actual transactions, only for testing purposes! In order to complete a purchase a combination of data must be had, and merely a card number is not enough. Information such as expiration date, card holders name and CVV numbers. Merely typing a valid credit card number into a form is not enough to purchase anything and you should not attempt to.

Read more about CNP transactions and how you need more information about a card to make a purchase remotely. We do not condone nor support fraud.

Some terms and their meanings