Analysis and Investigation
BIN data helps you understand your card payments and the card market. It shows patterns across your transactions, adds the facts when a card needs a closer look, and lets you compare banks and the cards they issue.
You only need the first digits of the card number. BIN data describes the card and its issuing bank, never the person holding the card.
- Find patterns in chargebacks and declined payments
- Compare banks and the cards they issue
- Look into compromised cards and suspicious payments
- Support tax and compliance reviews
- Label card data for analysis and research
Chargeback and Approval Rate Analysis
Add the bank, country and card type to your past payments. Then compare rates, not just totals, because a bank with many declines may simply be the one most of your customers use.
| Question | BIN data | Your own data | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which banks and card ranges have the lowest approval rates? | Bank and BIN | Approved and declined payments | Gives you real numbers to take to your payment provider. |
| Did approvals drop in one country, at one bank or on one card type? | Country, bank and card type | Decline codes and dates | Helps you tell a setup problem from a problem with one bank or market. |
| Which banks, countries or card types have the highest chargeback rates? | Bank, country, card type and level | Sales and chargebacks, by month of sale | Shows where problems are concentrated. |
| How do approval rates compare between our payment providers? | Bank and card type | Approved and declined payments, by provider | Lets you compare the same banks and card types side by side. |
| Where may our chargeback alerts not be reaching? | Bank and BIN | Alerts and chargebacks | Shows banks whose chargebacks arrive with no alert first. |
| Which card brands do our customers use? | Card brand | Sales | Shows which card networks matter most to your business. |
| How many payments are credit or debit? | Card type | Sales and fees | Helps you estimate how your card mix affects fees and compare pricing offers. |
| How many payments use prepaid or gift cards? | Card level | Sales | Helps you plan subscription renewals, because these cards can run out of funds. |
| How many payments use business cards? | Card level | Sales and fees | Business cards often cost more to accept. |
| How many payments use cards from banks abroad? | Country | Sales and fees | Foreign-issued cards can cost more to accept. |
BinDB adds the card details to your records. Approval, decline and chargeback figures come from your own payment data. BIN data shows you where to look, not why a bank declined a payment or why a customer disputed it.
Market Statistics on Banks and Cards
Use the full database to study the card market and see which banks have card ranges in each country, on each network and for each type of card.
| Question | BIN data | What you learn |
|---|---|---|
| Does Revolut issue Visa, Mastercard or both? | Bank and card brand | Which card networks a bank has card ranges on. |
| What kinds of cards does Chase issue? | Bank, card type and card level | Whether a bank's ranges are listed as credit, debit, prepaid or business. |
| Which banks appear in a country? | Bank, country and card brand | The issuers in our database for that country, and their card networks. |
| Which banks offer prepaid or business cards in a country? | Bank, card level and country | Who to research further, for finding partners or comparing competitors. |
| Which banks have the most card ranges on a network? | Card brand and bank | A rough view of who is active on that network. Count at one BIN length, because some ranges are split into smaller ones. |
BINs are not cards. A BIN is a range of card numbers, not a count of cards. BIN data can show which bank, network and card type a range belongs to, but not how many cards were issued from it or how many are in use. With 16-digit card numbers, an eight-digit BIN has room for up to 10 million cards, but that is its capacity, not the number issued. For the number of cards and market share, use central bank statistics, company reports or industry data.
Compromised Card Investigations
After an attack on your checkout or a data breach, BIN data helps you see what you are dealing with.
- Card testing. A sudden rise in card numbers tried within one card range is a common warning sign. Check whether the attempts cluster in one range or at one bank, use your payment records to find any that were approved, and share what you find with your payment provider.
- A rise in fraud. See whether fraud reports sit in one card range or bank beyond its share of your sales.
- A data breach. Contact your acquirer, the company that processes your card payments, and the card networks first. BIN data can then help you count the exposed cards by brand and see which countries issued them.
- Exposed card data. When security teams find exposed card numbers, the first digits show which banks and countries issued them, so the findings can reach the right card networks, banks or authorities.
BIN data cannot tell you whether a card was stolen or where. Banks and card networks work that out from transaction history.
Look Into One Payment
Fraud is often found only after the payment is made. By matching the BIN/IIN with our database, you can learn more about the card used in the fraudulent purchase.
- Step 1. Look up the first digits of the card number to see its brand, bank, type and country.
- Step 2. Compare the card country with the customer's details and the location of their IP address.
- Step 3. Check the card type. A prepaid or gift card may need a closer look, depending on what was sold.
- Step 4. Note the issuing bank's name, plus its website or phone where we have them. Disputes themselves go through your payment provider.
Tax and Compliance Uses
When you need to review a card or a group of payments, BIN data gives you a first step: which bank and country a card number points to.
| Use | What BIN data gives you | What it cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Tax and legal investigations | The likely issuing bank, so a lawful request can go to the right place. | Only the issuer can say who holds the card, and you need proper legal authority to ask. |
| Sanctions reviews | A way to flag cards from banks on a sanctions list for closer checks. | It cannot show on its own that a payment broke the rules. |
| Reviews of foreign or prepaid cards | The bank, the country and whether the card is prepaid, before you look at customer and transaction records. | A foreign or prepaid card is not evidence of wrongdoing, and the data does not show who loaded or spent the money. |
| EU cross-border payment reporting | European Commission guidance for VAT reporting names the card's BIN range as a way to locate the payer. | The same guidance warns that it may not suit e-money cards. |
BIN data supports your own review. It is not a sanctions screening or compliance product, and this page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Ask your adviser what your rules require.
Analysts and Researchers
BIN data works best as a label on data you already have. Your data supplies the counts, and BIN data tells you which bank, network and card type they belong to.
| Who | What they use it for | What else they need |
|---|---|---|
| Payment and data analysts | Load the data file into a data warehouse and join it to transaction history, so payments and finance teams report from the same card details. | The first digits and the date of each payment. |
| Market analysts and consultants | See which banks appear in a country, and which networks and card types their ranges cover. | Central bank data or company reports for the number of cards and spending. |
| Product and partnership teams | Build a shortlist of banks with prepaid or business card ranges. | The bank or card program itself, to confirm the details. |
| Fraud and security researchers | Group a set of card records by bank, network and type to see which stand out. | The data set itself, because it provides the counts. The result describes that data set, not the whole market. |
Getting Reliable Numbers
- Compare rates, not counts. A bank can top your list just because many of your customers use it.
- Set a minimum volume. A few chargebacks on a few payments can look like a very high rate.
- Keep the first eight digits if you can. Ask your PCI DSS assessor what you may store.
- Clean up bank names before grouping. The same bank can appear under slightly different names, and some ranges have no bank name.
- Your customers are not the market. Your own figures describe the cards you saw, not the whole card market.
Keep in Mind
- Card country is not customer country. Travelers and customers of online banks often use cards issued abroad.
- A mismatch is not proof of fraud. It is a reason to look closer.
- The bank shown may not be the name on the card. A fintech card can show the partner bank behind it.
- Mobile wallets can hide the real card. Apple Pay and Google Pay can use a token number whose BIN differs from the real card.
- Six digits may not be enough. One six-digit BIN can cover different banks or countries, so use eight digits or more when you have them.
- BIN data changes over time. Today's answer may differ from the day of an old payment, so note which data file you used.