How to tell a UK debit card from a credit card

[palgrave]

I have taken over the management a website with a custom-built order process on behalf of one of our clients.

When collecting payment details the process asks if the customer is using a debit card or a credit card.

If it is a credit card, a £4 fee is added.

However, the system relies on honesty, and if a customer selects debit card but enters credit card details they get off with the £4.

Is there any way to tell a debit card from a credit card by the 16-digit number, or any other method?

[Dibs_h]

Credit & Debit cards - the issuer & type is distinguished from the BIN. The actual validity of the number can be confirmed by the Luhn Algorithm.

These 2 links should help,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bank_Identification_Numbers

http://www.beachnet.com/~hstiles/cardtype.html

HIH.

Dibs

[palgrave]

Thanks dibs, that looks like what I'm needing.

[adam]

Great list, I always new some of them but there are thousands!

It seems a little dodgy that you never had anything in place to check before but at least you have spotted that error. Also, you say £4 but doesn't it work on a percentage? Could you still end up loosing money on a sale if the margins are tight and they order say £500 worth?

[palgrave]

Also, you say £4 but doesn't it work on a percentage? Could you still end up loosing money on a sale if the margins are tight and they order say £500 worth?

No, it's a fixed handling fee, like with easyjet.

[Dibs_h]

Great list, I always new some of them but there are thousands!


You don't need to cater for them all - just perhaps exclude every BIN range apart from UK issuers. That would result in a fairly small nbr (relatively speaking). Assuming that you only send to a UK Address.

[adam]

No, it's a fixed handling fee, like with easyjet.

I thought you still had to pay a percentage as the merchant.

[palgrave]

Yeah, I suppose that is true. I don't know how they work that one in. Maybe they're doing that calculation behind the scenes and including it in the net price.

Whatever it is, they add 4 quid when somebody selects credit card.

[KateCB]

I had to ask - why? OK there is the percentage to the bank, the cost for payment processor (2p average? depending on volume of transactions) - it doesn't take any more work to process a credit card than a debit card, it works in exactly the same way....why do companies rip us off with charges of £4.00 upwards to do their job?

I was looking at BMIBABY today - they make a charge for ALL credit and debit card payments.....except Electron - the one we all struggled to take for years - if you are offering an inlone payment facility and need more money to pay for it, build it into the price instead of charging people to pay you...I really object to this practice!

[adam]

I have to agree with Kate, well said. I suppose there may be some risk element in it but Easyjet does the same, it is another hidden charge even when you pay by Maestro and they have to pay the 20p or so, they chanrge £2.50 or so.

[dataferret]

It is all down to price comparison websites. If you include the credit card charges inside the actual product price you risk falling behind on the price comparison sites when comparing like for like products.

By comparison, if you put the fees on as attributes (extras to you and me), the product price is always competitive and the extra fees tend only to show at some point during the checkout process.

Most e-tailers will claim they are being more transparent by pricing things seperately but in reality it is a ratchet to squeeze extra profit margins into the deal

[adam]

and hence misleading. If the fee is payable by more than 50% of their customers it should be shown in the price and then offered as a discount if you chose another option.