Maestro Cards & The Issue number

savagej

The PAN length can be anything between 16 and 19 so it includes 16, 17, 18, and 19 digit numbers and the card may or may not have a sequence (issue) number.

Cards issued in the UK are indeed 16 digits without an issue number and are processed in accordance with UK Domestic Maestro Card rules.

The number of digits of cards not issued in the UK is not always 16, but yes cards always have an expiry date and may or may not have an issue number.

When a card issued outside of the UK is presented for an intracountry transaction in the UK then international rules take precedence but these are very complicated (right down to which EU countries maybe involved and different rules depending on which one, or is it Canda, or another non-EU region again have different rules).

There are also rules surrounding the use of a card for CNP (not all countries and issuers support the CVV and AVS systems) transaction as if a card is not embossed and contains a chip it will not work on-line. But the PAN will pass an algorithmic test to support its validity as a Maestro Card number.

This obviously needs to be known by the OP so they do not spend hours trying to process transactions (because the card number is still laser etched on the card) that cannot even be processed, they need professional advice from their Merchant service to handle international Maestro cards.

I think that was the question.

Lorfy

many thanks for all the very in depth response and discussion which were invaluable. After reading through this and other research we are going to keep the Maestro card option and delete the issue number field.

Many thanks again for all your input

Cris

Toe-Jam

savagej wrote: »

The PAN length can be anything between 16 and 19 so it includes 16, 17, 18, and 19 digit numbers and the card may or may not have a sequence (issue) number.

The number of digits of cards not issued in the UK is not always 16, but yes cards always have an expiry date and may or may not have an issue number.

Discover cards were changed to the 16 digit format in 2009 and switch was changed from 19 when it was closed down in may 2011.

There are also rules surrounding the use of a card for CNP (not all countries and issuers support the CVV and AVS systems) transaction as if a card is not embossed and contains a chip it will not work on-line.

Some Northern Bank Maestro cards are not embossed, Neither are National Irish bank and they both work online and in Petrol pumps without any problems.

savagej

By on-line I mean't on the internet (as the OP's question was about their on-line payment gateway), not the term "on-line" coined on this site to refer to cards encoded so that a transaction will only work if the terminal can be forced on-line (to connect with the bank's server) to gain a positive authorisation for the transaction.

Non-embossed, chip containing Maestro cards, issued outside of the UK cannot be used on the internet in the UK to buy anything or for other MO/TO transactions.

International Maestro cards, any issued outwith the UK, can be either 16, 17, 18 or 19 digits in length and it may or may not have an issue number. Whether or not it has an issue number is not related to the PAN length as it was with 19 digit legacy UK card numbers. This is a requirement of the International Maestro numbering rules especially for co-branded cards with additional national functionality.

Toe-Jam

savagej wrote: »

By on-line I mean't on the internet (as the OP's question was about their on-line payment gateway), not the term "on-line" coined on this site to refer to cards encoded so that a transaction will only work if the terminal can be forced on-line (to connect with the bank's server) to gain a positive authorisation for the transaction.

Non-embossed, chip containing Maestro cards, issued outside of the UK cannot be used on the internet in the UK to buy anything or for other MO/TO transactions.
.

I understood what you meant. Still not true tho. I have a NIB unembossed maestro card and i used it on ticketmaster the other day. It works on paypal too no problems. And I live in the UK.

Plxply

I've found the MasterCard operating rules which will hopefully shed some light. It's slightly bigger than light reading and although I haven't looked for the Maestro section, it does contain a Europe specific chapter:

http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/pdf/BM-Entire_Manual_public.pdf