Credit for Women

Forty Year Anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act

The twentieth century was a time of great change and upheaval all around the globe, much of it driven by two world wars.  For women, at least women living in the west, it was a time of progress, largely thanks to the sterling efforts of the Suffragists and Suffragettes of the early years and the influence of the Women’s Movement from the 1970s onwards. It all seems rather a long time ago now as we fast forward into the twenty first century, but working women today are still benefiting from their efforts.  My working life started in 1978 and I have witnessed some huge changes for women even in the few decades since then. 

Some of the big steps forward since 1900 include

• The right to vote
• The right to own property
• Access to contraception and the right for safe and legal abortion
• Equal pay opportunities
• Equal employment
• Access to higher education and the right to graduate from university
• Entrance to the professions

One other vital freedom for women, which is not so frequently discussed, is the right to access credit.  Let us not forget that it has not been so long since women were routinely denied their own bank accounts and cheque books, let alone the right to borrow money under their own name.  Back in the nineteenth century it was rare for a woman to build a business up from scratch, or acquire property other than by inheritance.

Times change, and it has now been forty years since the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) came into force in the USA.  This piece of legislation was not just a question of women’s rights, but of rights for everybody regardless of colour, creed, physical disability, age or sexual orientation.  Of course, the ECOA applies to the USA only, although the UK and most of the west have similar laws in place: elsewhere in the world things work very differently. 

Although the legislation has been in place for forty years, I would argue that it usually takes a while for social attitudes to catch up with the law. I live and grew up in the UK, and I can clearly remember finding it impossible to make any major financial transactions or buy anything on credit under my own steam, in spite of the fact that I was a fully fledged married woman, with a degree and a responsible well-paid job.  As recently as last year a solar panel salesman refused to have a meeting with me unless my husband was also present!  Needless to say, the meeting did not take place, and, thankfully, our roof is still innocent of those ugly solar excrescences. 

Whilst I can now look back and laugh at some of these experiences, it is important to remember just how important it is for women to establish and cherish their financial independence.  Gone are the days when it seemed OK for stay-at-home mums and housewives to survive on allowances from their husbands, when it was OK not to earn your own salary, and it was normal to have no bank account or a joint bank account only, and it was OK to rely on your husband to organise funding for all the major financial decisions and purchases.

Even after all the social and legal changes that many have fought and died for, it is a fact of life that women still do the lion’s share of housework and childcare. Consequently women are still more likely than men to take time out from their jobs and careers, leaving gaps which can have a severe impact on their earning power and on their credit histories.  Not only that, but a woman’s credit history is often completely lost when she gets married and changes her name, a problem which may only become apparent in later years on becoming separated, divorced or widowed.

What should we do to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the ECOA?  I enjoy a bit of retail therapy as much as the next woman, but instead of going on a spending spree with your credit card why not consider a financial health check?  This is an important thing for everyone to do from time to time, say every year or so, whatever their gender. For example, why not take time to go through all  your standing orders and direct debits, making sure that you know what they are all for?  Look at your bank account: is it still the best deal for you? Many banks offer a one-off cash incentive to switch to their account, and others have current accounts with better rates of interest than some savings accounts.

If you have made the sacrifice of putting your career on the backburner in order to look after your home and children, you still need to take responsibility for your own finances and maintain your own personal current and savings accounts. Try not to rely solely on a joint bank accounts, but if that is where much of your cash is held, make sure you keep an eye on it and that you are aware of any unusual payments or withdrawals by your partner.  Don’t neglect to maintain a CV, keep your skills up to date so that you maintain your own earning power.  Whatever your employment status and marital status, ensure that you build a good credit history for yourself, in your own name.  You never know when you may need to access credit urgently: life is full of surprises! 

A couple of practical steps you can take right now to help you establish credit are to obtain your credit report and find out what your credit score is.  You may have to pay for this, depending on where you live, but it is worth the cost as you will also receive some advice on how to improve your score.  The better your credit score, the lower will be the interest you are charged on credit cards and loans.  If you don’t already have a credit card, get one, not for a ridiculous credit-fuelled spending spree, but to build a positive credit history by demonstrating to lenders that you can handle a card responsibly.

Footnote: Some Important Milestones in Female Emancipation

1792        Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women 

1918        Representation of the People Act was passed, enfranchising 

                women over 30 with property

1919        Lady Astor takes her seat in Parliament as the first female British MP

1920        Women are allowed to graduate with degrees from Oxford University

1928        The Representation of the People Act 1928 extended the voting 

                franchise to all women over the age of 21

1946        UN Commission on the Status of Women established to secure equal
                rights for women throughout the world

1970        Equal Pay Act UK
1974        Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) in the USA        
1979        Margaret Thatcher becomes first (and so far, only!) Prime Minister of
                Great Britain
1994        First women priests ordained by the Church of England
2010        Equal Opportunities Act

Welcome to 2014! Some Ghostly Tales and a Resolution for the New Year

Happy New Year to all MWOP readers, whether you are a regular, a follower or just a casual visitor to the blog.  I have just returned to the office after a lovely, relaxing mid-winter break.  There has been plenty of time for mooching around, relaxing, watching the TV, playing music and above all, for reading.  When it comes to reading, I am a big fan of E F Benson, who will be familiar to many of you from the Mapp and Lucia series of novels.  Delve a bit deeper into the E F Benson catalogue, and you will find many other gems, including some cracking ghost stories.  These are my personal favourites: there is NOTHING I like better on a miserable January day than curling up by a roaring log fire in a comfy armchair with a spooky book and a glass of port.  

There is nothing I like better than a good old ghost story

Benson’s books take you to another world where people dressed for dinner, took month-long holidays in Venetian palazzos, and had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of servants to do all the dirty work.  Mind you, all of that was generally  no defence at all from the predations of a determined and vengeful ghost. If you are a fan of M R James, P G Wodehouse or Agatha Christie you will love E F Benson too.   Having long-since read all the Mapp and Lucia books, I quickly devoured the ghost stories, including such classics as The Step, The Horror-Horn and Mrs Amworth.  I was still hungry for more, so I did a quick Kindle search, and stumbled across The Osbornes.  I must admit, I uploaded it because it was a freebie, but I started reading and quickly got pulled in by the sheer quality of the story-telling.  All right, I admit this may SOUND like a bit of a digression from the topic of banking systems and credit cards, but I am getting to the point, honestly I am!

What is of interest to this blog is an incident in The Osbornes concerning a banking fraud.  This book was published in 1910, so we are talking about cheque-book fraud rather than credit card fraud, of course.  Nonetheless it is an interesting and thought-provoking vignette.  As with many cases of fraud, it happened because of the carelessness of the account-holder, in this instance, millionaire Claude Osborne.  He was foolish enough to leave his cheque-book lying around, which was temptation beyond endurance to his aristocratic but broke and morally bankrupt brother-in-law, Lord Austell.  I don’t want to reveal too much and spoil the story for you, but I am happy to report that all is resolved satisfactorily in the end, with both the perpetrator and the victim learning some valuable life lessons.

It was also encouraging to note that, in this case, the bank staff were on the ball and spotted the fraud.  Although the fraudster had taken pains to forge Claude Osborne’s signature accurately, what gave the game away was that the transaction was an unusual one: a cheque payable to ‘cash’ for a whopping £500 was rare in 1910, even for a millionaire.

In 2014, over a hundred years later, credit card security still depends on banking systems which can identify and report unusual or unlikely transactions.   Today everything is automated, but the principle is the same; to look out for anomalies in your spending pattern. This can be irksome: we have all had the annoying experience of trying to pay for something slightly out of the ordinary, like an expensive flight, or spending money whilst travelling, and being interrupted by a security call from the card company.  Card companies are now able to monitor and analyse huge amounts of transaction data.  They look for spending patterns and are able to raise a security alert when a suspected anomaly occurs.  They also take a close interest in fraud ‘hotspots’, and may intervene when a customer attempts to make payments via certain suspect merchants or websites.

There are many high-tech tools available to combat card fraud, but it is still a huge problem for banks, card issuers and their customers.  Just a few short weeks ago, on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, there was a highly-publicised security breach at US bargain store Target.  The Target chain is a retail giant, with almost 1,800 stores in the U.S. and 124 in Canada.  It was reported that up to forty million card holders were at risk of fraud and identity theft following a problem with the in-store card-swipe system.  This was the second largest card hack in US history, and more proof, if any more were needed, that US card providers are lagging way behind the cyber criminals when it comes to understanding and exploiting technology.

The embarrassing truth is that the magnetic stripe card system is now years out of date and no longer fit for purpose. For the Target group, 2014 is likely to be memorable for all the wrong reasons, such as a drop in profits and share price, massive financial losses and multiple customer lawsuits. Is it not high time for the USA to ditch the mag stripe and switch over to Chip&PIN technology?  I can’t think of a better New Year’s resolution.

PS, don’t forget to check out the E F Benson Ghost Story collection.  For those of you who use a Kindle, it can be downloaded FREE from the Amazon Store.

Best wishes to you all, may you have health, happiness and prosperity in 2014.

High-Tech or What? Introducing the Coin Multi-Card

I like to keep a weather eye on the credit card news, partly out of personal interest and partly because I am am always on the look-out for interesting stories for this blog.  This one stood out for grabbing the headlines and clogging up the blogosphere on a grand scale. It is all over my regular sources of online information, including the major credit card blogs, newspaper websites, and financial sites. Technology firm Coin certainly know how to drum up publicity, but is the new device relevant and will people want to use it?

What is it?

Coin is a credit card sized device capable of storing the information from up to eight separate cards, and it looks pretty cool. Like old-style credit cards, the Coin card uses a magnetic strip to store information.  The clever bit, and the USP for the Coin, is that you can change the information on the strip depending on which card you wish to use.  When you want to make a payment you decide which card to use, select it by scrolling through the choices on your Coin, and swipe it like a regular credit card.

Due to hit the shops in summer 2014, it will retail for $100, but as this is the first offering from a start-up company in need of funding,  anyone who fancies taking a chance on the project can pre-order one now for $50.

Should you get one?

On the plus side, it comes with a few gimmicky security features.  For example, if the card loses contact with your phone for a specified time, it will automatically deactivate.  So if you absentmindedly leave your card on a check-out counter it will send an alert to your phone. Your account will also be password protected so no casual thief will be able to access your card details.  

The Coin Multi-Card

Coin are marketing this as a high-tech, cool and funky device which will streamline your wallet, but I am not sure it will live up to the hype.  For a start, it can only hold the details of a maximum of eight cards, which may not be enough for the true credit card junkie devoted to getting deals, collecting points and building up air-miles. What is more, it cannot be used for online shopping! What the heck! The expected battery life of the device is two years, after which the card needs to be replaced.  I am unclear if you will have to pay for a replacement, but if you do, it seems very expensive.

High-Tech or What?

It might be marketed as the latest must-have, cool, high-tech gadget, but it sounds like it will be very clunky to use.  To get a Coin card, you must first have a Smartphone: the device cannot work without Bluetooth connection to a phone.  To set up your coin you have to take photographs of all your credit cards, swipe them through a dongle; upload them to the Coin mobile app, which will then store the info on your coin card. Phew.

A Century of Credit Cards

The fact is, credit cards of one form or another have been around now for almost a century.  If you don’t believe me check out this earlier MWOP posting: 

http://charlottemooney.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/looking-backward-more-on-origins-of.html.  There are lots of card companies out there vying for our custom, and the traditional credit card model is facing competition from every quarter. It was originally designed for businessmen dining out in restaurants, not for twenty-first century shoppers making online purchases over the internet.

Ask yourself this question: with today’s technology, why do we even NEED a piece of plastic at all? We have mobile phones, PCs, laptops, smart phones, tablets: why do we need anything else?  Credit card companies are fighting for our custom and struggling to remain relevant.  As for this particular piece of plastic, is it really a step forward? I would say not: it is old technology wrapped up in fancy packaging. How will it fit into the Chip&PIN world? Well, the truth is, it won’t, as it is aimed squarely at the US market, which has not yet adopted the Chip&PIN and still uses the magnetic strip system.  Once the USA switches over to Chip&PIN, the Coin will be defunct.  RIP Coin!

This is No Ordinary Contactless Card Reader…. this is an M&S Contactless Card Reader!

Good old Marks and Spencer, Marks and Sparks, M&S.  It has been around since 1884, and is now probably the most trusted retail brand in the UK; as British as the rose, as reliable as death and taxes.  They are known for their ethical trading values, and run a  'shwopping' scheme to encourage customers to recycle their old clothes and raise money for Oxfam.

Recent TV advertising campaigns have featured such British icons as Joanna Lumley, Twiggy, Nicola Adams, D’Arcy Bussell, Dame Helen Mirren and Tracey Emin. Hang on a minute: Twiggy, Joanna Lumley and Dame Helen Mirren, and even Nicola Adams, the Olympic boxer, I can understand, but Tracey Emin? Really? M&S, what were you thinking? Much as I admire Turner Prize winning artist Tracey, I’m not sure she is ideal M&S marketing material.  Surely she is more unmade bed than good quality, robust control pants.

But I digress. This posting is supposed to be about contactless card security issues. Home of the no-questions-asked-money back guarantee, 'Your M&S' wouldn’t take payments off their loyal customers’ cards without permission, would they? Hard to believe, I know, but in recent months I have read reports of exactly that happening.  Two irate customers reported to Radio 4’s MoneyBox  programme that their contactless cards were debited as they stood at the till preparing to make a traditional style chip&PIN payment with a normal debit or credit card.  The contactless cards were apparently debited even though they remained in the customers’ wallet and were more than a foot away from the contactless readers.

Both customer and shop assistant were confused.  I am a bit confused too.  Surely, once the contactless card had been debited, that would be the end of the transaction: but apparently in some cases, the customers actually paid twice. Could there be more customers out there who have unwittingly paid double?

According to a Marks and Spencer spokesman each reported case has been investigated and where double payments have been made, customers have been refunded.  Apparently M&S is the leading user of the contactless payment system in the UK, with the contactless card readers now installed in all 644 of its UK stores, and with nearly a quarter of a million contactless transactions taking place per week.

Hmm, I wonder how many of those transactions were unintentional! Thank God my bank has not yet issued me with a contactless debit card, as I am a frequent visitor to my local M&S, and a big fan of their control pants.

101 Uses for a Dead Credit Card: Numbers 9, 10 and 11

It’s back by popular demand: more uses for a dead credit card!  I offer you Use Number 9, Removing Insect Stings, plus a couple of other bits of stuff and nonsense for your amusement too.  First up: can a credit card actually be good for your health?  The British Red Cross thinks it can! Now I thought that the British Red Cross were supposed to be experts in first aid.  Then I stumbled upon this bit of nonsense on their blog…

Number 9: Removing Insect Stings

Record numbers of wasps and other insects, triggered by the recent unusual weather patterns, are reported to be plaguing British parks and gardens this year, and the British Red Cross is warning the public to be prepared. Joe Mulligan, their Head of First Aid, recommends that you keep a credit card handy to hygienically scrape away any insect sting left in your skin. 

Here is his advice:-

 Using the edge of the credit card, drag it across the skin. This will remove the sting. Using a credit card or your fingernail is preferable to using a pair of tweezers.  Some stings contain a sac of poison and if it is grasped with tweezers you may inject the sac of poison into the skin

Surely he should realise that, unlike bees,  wasps do not leave a sting behind after attacking, so the credit card trick will not be of any use to anyone unfortunate to be stung by them this autumn. Love the blog post, all the same! 

http://blogs.redcross.org.uk/first-aid/2013/09/in-case-of-an-attack-by-drunk-wasps-keep-a-credit-card-ready-2/

BTW the British Red Cross is in fact one of our most worthwhile best-organised charities in the world; I am a regular supporter, and I particularly admire their work in responding to disasters and emergencies all over the world.

Number 10: You can Summon the Police by Reversing your PIN

Talking of emergencies, there is another story doing the rounds concerning what to do if you are ever unlucky enough to be mugged at a cash point machine (ATM). If a thief tries to force you to withdraw cash, you can summon police assistance by entering your PIN in reverse, or so the story goes. Right?  Wrong!

This is an urban myth that started circulating on the internet back in 2006.  The story goes that rather than attempting to fight off the attacker, you should pretend to go along with their demands, and insert your card into the machine as usual.  You should then key in your number BACKWARDS (eg, if your PIN is 1234, enter 4321 instead), which will have the effect of alerting the police who will immediately come to your aid.

Misleading, nay downright wrong advice.  It appears that the idea of a reverse PIN or ‘panic code’ has indeed been suggested, and in fact was patented back in 1998 by a Chicago businessman called Joseph Zingher, but has never been taken up by ATM providers.   If you try punching an incorrect PIN into an ATM you will actually find that the card is eventually retained.  This is a security measure designed to prevent fraudulent use of your card.  My advice to anyone wishing to avoid becoming the victim of this type of crime?  Wear sensible shoes and run away as fast as your legs will carry you!

Number 11: Credit Card Saves Man’s Life

For all the urban myths, balderdash and poppycock that have been written about payment cards, sometimes you do find a true story.  In this one, which appeared on an Australian news channel, a credit card actually saved a man’s life!

A customer at a BP petrol station in Sydney narrowly escaped death when an out-of-control car crashed into the service area.  The lucky chap, Carlo Spina, had just popped into the service counter to buy a magazine.  On opening his wallet he realised he was out of cash, and was forced to linger a little longer at the counter in order to pay by card.  Check out this dramatic footage of the incident from Australian news provider Nine News. http://youtu.be/QFesgBfWmfM

If Mr Spina had been walking away from the counter at the time, he would almost certainly have been hit by the car and badly injured or killed.  Which just goes to show that , deployed correctly, your trusty credit card can be your best friend, or even a life-saver.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Jesus, Zacchaeus and Wonga

When I started this blog a few years ago my boss was a bit unclear about what he actually wanted me to write about.  The one thing he did specify, however, was to keep off religion and to stay away from politics.  Five years down the line, and I have tried, I really have, to stick to this one caveat, but boy, is it hard.

I don’t want to offend or alienate anyone, God knows (whoops, probably shouldn’t have said that) but sometimes a story crops up that is just too good to resist.  Last week, for example, newly-appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was all over the British news for having a go at the PayDay loans companies, notably Wonga.

Now Mr Welby is not your average Archbishop: with a career history including eleven years in the oil industry and a spell serving on the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, he is possibly better-qualified than most people to comment on ‘sharp’ lending practices. Financial and business ethics have been a long-term interest for him; he has written extensively on the subject, including Explorations in Financial Ethics, and Can Companies Sin?

His Grace Justin Welby, Archbiiishop of Canterbury

In his role as Commissioner he gained a reputation for being tough on bankers, famously remarking that the banks served ‘no socially useful purpose'.  He also suggested that senior bank executives were guilty of deliberately avoiding investigating information on shady dealings within their organisations so they could plead ignorance about them later, when the brown stuff finally hit the fan. To be fair, he did temper this by warning against the temptation to act like a lynch mob by naming and shaming individual bankers.

‘WongaGate’ first came to my attention when I heard the Archbishop announcing his intention to ‘compete it out of existence’ by creating the Church of England’s own credit union companies as an alternative source of lending for poor people.  ‘Great idea’ I thought, ‘I must use this for a blog posting, it will make a great story’.

As if this wasn’t material enough for a financial blogger, the story exploded into a media frenzy the following day when it was revealed that the Church of England was itself an investor in Wonga! Mr Welby then endured the ordeal of being grilled by John Humphrys on Radio 4’s Today program, admitting that he was ‘very embarrassed’ by the revelation.  A rich vein of material indeed!  Blogger's golddust!

I have to hand it to the Archbishop, he has the guts to get off the fence, stand up and speak out for what he believes is right.  He genuinely wants to provide an ethical and affordable lending service for hard-up, ordinary, struggling people currently at risk of getting into appalling financial difficulties.  OK, maybe he made a bit of a boob in not checking out the Church’s investment portfolio before criticising the Payday loan industry, but that does not make him a hypocrite; it, just means he was somewhat under-prepared.

I am reminded of the story of Jesus overturning the moneylenders’ tables in the temple:

And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.    (Matthew 21:12–13).

And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.   (Jn 2:13–16)

So far His Grace the Archbishop has refrained from giving Wonga a whipping; in fact he has been rather polite about them.  Speaking on Radio 4’s  Today programme he said:

   

 Funnily enough, I never took on Wonga in particular. The context was talking about the entire payday lender movement. Wonga is actually a very professionally managed company. Errol Damelin, the chief executive, is a very clever man, runs it extremely well.

Jesus Talking to Zacchaeus

Let us not forget another iconic Bible story, concerning a social outcast, Zacchaeus the tax-collector.  Zacchaeus wanted to hear Jesus speak, and being of short stature, climbed up a tree to get a good view above the crowd. Jesus made a point of singling him out and inviting himself to his house for lunch.  Subsequently, Zacchaeus repented of his evil, usurious ways, vowing to repay four-fold all those he had cheated, and to give half his wealth to the poor.

It just goes to show that, though it may be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, it is certainly not impossible.  After all, Justin Welby is an Old Etonian and former oil executive, and now he is Archbishop of Canterbury. That concludes my sermon for today.  God Bless you all for reading. Sorry boss, it did contain religion and politics.

Technology Update: Understanding your Credit Card Number

Bank cards: just a small (85.60 × 53.98 mm) piece of plastic that we keep in our wallets, carry around with us and use every day.  They are an important part of our lives, but we just take them for granted. They may look mundane, but those insignificant bits of plastic are responsible for many millions of financial transactions globally every day, in which billions of dollars are exchanged.  Spare a thought for that seemingly humble scrap of plastic: it may be small but it has a huge amount of technology crammed into it.  There may be a magnetic stripe or a computer chip, a security hologram, the CVV security code (aka Card Verification Value or Card Security Code), and, in some cases, embedded circuits containing information for contactless processing.

The Primary Account Number

A major component of the whole process is the card number, often referred to as the Primary Account Number, or PAN. This is that long number on the front of your bank card: do you know what it means and how it works? It has meaning and structure, and is certainly not just a random string of unrelated digits!  The string of  sixteen digits on a credit or debit card conforms to an internationally recognised standard and plays an important role in the technology that enables us to make cash-free transactions instantly, accurately, and internationally.

International Standards

Over decades of development of payment systems technology international standards have been established and agreed between card issuing banks and other institutions, including a network of national standards bodies, like ANSI, the American National Standards Institute, and ISO, the International Standards Organization.  

The first six digits of the PAN are defined by the card issuer (eg, Visa, Amex, MasterCard), and are known as the Issuer Identification Number, or IIN*. The first component of the IIN, Digit 1, gives an indication of the source of your card, and is known as the Major Industry Identifier, or MII. Bank cards will always start with 4, 5 or 6, which relate to the banking and finance sectors. See my footnote for a complete list of IINs. ANSI is responsible for maintaining and administering a database of IINs.

Check Digit Validation

The last digit of the PAN is the check digit; the most interesting and important component of the entire account number.  It is used to ensure the validity and security of the card number, by using a simple arithmetical check known as the Luhn Algorithm, sometimes also known as a modulus 10 check.   For those of you who are not natural mathematicians or who have long since forgotten everything you learned in mathematics class at school: don’t panic. It really is a simple procedure.

For example, look at this PAN: 4012 8888 8888 1881.

To carry out a manual check digit test on this number, work through the entire sixteen digits from right to left, starting with the character next to the check digit, multiplying every other digit by two like this:-                     

4	0	1	2	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	1	8	8	1
x 2		x 2		x 2		x 2		x 2		x 2		x 2		x 2
8		2		16		16		16		16		2		16

If the result of any of the multiplication is a two-digit number, add each two-digit number to achieve a single character, like this:-

4	0	1	2	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	1	8	8	1
8		2		16		16		16		16		2		16
8		2		7		7		7		7		2		7

Now add in the odd digits which were not multiplied by two:-

4	0	1	2	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	1	8	8	1
8	0	2	2	7	8	7	8	7	8	7	8	2	8	7	1

Add this row of numbers up:-
             8+0+2+2+7+8+7+8+7+8+7+8+2+8+7+1= 90.
If this final number is divisible by 10, then, as far as the check digit routine is concerned, the card number is valid. In this case, the result is 90, so success! Our PAN has passed the check digit validation.

Bank Number Security

How does check digit validation help to make my credit or debit card more secure? Well, it is just one part of a set of computer checks carried out for every credit or debit card transaction. It does ensure, however, that any sixteen digits entered into a transaction processing system are at least in the correct sequence and constitute a potentially valid bank card number.  For additional security, a whole range of further tests are in place, including Chip & PIN or magnetic stripe validation, CVV checking, and customer passwords such as ‘Verified by Visa’ or ‘MasterCard SecureCode’.

* Footnote: Full list of IIN Allocations

      0 – ISO/TC 68 and other future industry assignments

      1 – Airlines

      2 – Airlines and other future industry assignments

      3 – Travel and entertainment and banking/financial

      4 – Banking and financial

      5 – Banking and financial

      6 – Merchandising and banking/financial

      7 – Petroleum and other future industry assignments

      8 – Healthcare, telecommunications and other future industry assignments

      9 – National assignment