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A BIN (Bank Identification Number) is the first 6 to 8 digits of a credit or debit card number. It tells you which bank issued the card, which network it runs on, the card type, and the issuing country. It reveals nothing about the cardholder.
BIN is the name banks and merchants use. The ISO/IEC 7812 standard calls the same digits the Issuer Identification Number (IIN), so a BIN lookup and an IIN lookup return the same data. Merchants and payment processors use BINs to detect potential fraud, comply with regulatory requirements, and route payments accurately.
For a deeper look at routing and authorization, read our guide to bank identification numbers in payment processing.
A Primary Account Number (PAN) is usually 16 digits long (15 for American Express) and has three parts:
Because the BIN sits at the start of the PAN, the first digits often reveal the card network. Use this table to identify a card type by its number.
Our BIN Lookup tool provides insights like:
Here is what a real lookup returns for a sample BIN. This is a generic example, not tied to any real cardholder or transaction.
A BIN check is one of the cheapest fraud checks you can run. It takes a second and flags orders where the card does not fit the customer's story. US-issued cards were tied to 41.87% of global card fraud losses in 2024, while making up 26.31% of card volume, according to the Nilson Report.
BIN checks help after a dispute too. If a cardholder claims fraud, showing that the issuing country matched the billing and shipping address strengthens your evidence. Pair BIN screening with chargeback alerts so you can refund a flagged order before it becomes a chargeback.
A BIN check cannot catch friendly fraud, where the real cardholder disputes a purchase they made. Fraud that gets through also counts under the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP). VAMP flags merchants whose combined fraud and dispute ratio reaches 1.5% in most regions. Check where you stand with the free VAMP calculator.
ISO updated its card numbering standard, ISO/IEC 7812-1:2017, to lengthen the issuer identification number from 6 to 8 digits. Visa and Mastercard set April 2022 as the date for issuers, acquirers, and processors to support 8-digit BINs. Card numbers stay the same length, so a longer BIN leaves fewer digits for the account number.
If a 6-digit lookup returns an issuer that does not match the card, confirm it with the full 8-digit BIN through your payment processor.
Some payment rules depend on what the BIN tells you about the card. Three come up most often for online merchants.
Yes. A BIN lookup only reveals the issuing bank, card network, card type, and country tied to the first 6 to 8 digits of a card. It never exposes the full card number, the cardholder's name, or any other personal or account details.
Nee. Het BIN geeft alleen de uitgevende instelling en het netwerk aan, niet de individuele rekening. Handelaars gebruiken deze gegevens om mogelijke fraude op te sporen en de herkomst van een kaart te controleren, niet om een specifieke persoon op te zoeken.
A BIN lookup checks real, already issued BIN data to identify the issuing bank and network. It does not create new or usable card numbers. Chargeflow's tool is a lookup only, built for merchants verifying legitimate transactions, not a number generator.
Most BINs are 6 digits, though newer card formats use 8 digits as part of a 16 to 19 digit Primary Account Number. Visa and Mastercard have issued 8-digit BINs since April 2022.
Merchants cross-check the BIN's country and issuer against the customer's billing and shipping details. A mismatch, like a US-issued card shipping to a different country with no prior order history, is a common early fraud signal, used alongside chargeback reason code tracking and broader chargeback automation to catch fraud before it becomes a dispute.
Yes. BIN (Bank Identification Number) and IIN (Issuer Identification Number) are two names for the same first 6 to 8 digits of a card number. IIN is the formal term in the ISO/IEC 7812 standard. BIN is the name most banks, processors, and merchants use.
Yes. Enter the first 6 digits of the credit card number into a BIN lookup tool. It returns the issuing bank, card network, card type, and country. You never need the full card number, and you should never paste one into an online tool.
A BIN list, or BIN database, is a table that maps BIN ranges to issuing banks, card networks, card types, and countries. A BIN lookup tool queries a BIN database. Because banks reassign and merge ranges, a BIN database needs regular updates to stay accurate.
Look at the first digits. Card numbers starting with 4 are Visa, and 51 to 55 or 2221 to 2720 are Mastercard. Numbers starting with 34 or 37 are American Express, and 6011 or 65 are usually Discover. A BIN lookup confirms the network plus the card type, such as credit, debit, or prepaid.

Recover 4x more chargebacks and prevent up to 90% of incoming ones, powered by AI and a global network of 20,000+ merchants.