MasterCard changing bin # to 2

[Anonymous]

The first number of MasterCard will soon start out with a 2 instead of a 5. I work at a bank and they gave us info this week on it. I googled it and found this article. It's really interesting. I suppose they are running out of numbers. What do you all think?

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/issuers/get-support/2-series-bin-expansion.html

[Anonymous]

This has been discussed before in the Smorgasboard board. MasterCard will still issue cards that have a BIN beginning with 5; however, as of October 2016 they have begun issuing some cards with a BIN that begin with 2. This is because they are running out of available BINs.

I think its weird. Even weirder that Visa issues BINs 4000-4999 yet MasterCard only issues 5100-5599 range. I feel that rather than start issuing BINs with 2 they should start issuing 5000-5099 and 5600-5999. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This has been discussed before in the Smorgasboard board. MasterCard will still issue cards that have a BIN beginning with 5; however, as of October 2016 they have begun issuing some cards with a BIN that begin with 2. This is because they are running out of available BINs.

I think its weird. Even weirder that Visa issues BINs 4000-4999 yet MasterCard only issues 5100-5599 range. I feel that rather than start issuing BINs with 2 they should start issuing 5000-5099 and 5600-5999. 

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I agree they should have upped the range to 5999. Oh well I suppose.

[wasCB14]

Cardguard, Bankcard, Switch...most of the "spectrum" in the upper 5's is free, but some of it is already taken, according to wikipedia.

[Anonymous]

They should keep 5s for CCs and use the 2s for debit cards.

[UpperNwGuy]

Don't the first few digits indicate the issuing bank?

[Anonymous]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

Don't the first few digits indicate the issuing bank?

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Yes, but big issuers need more than one BIN. 2nd digit and either 3, 4, or 5 mark the issuing bank for MC, while the first digit indicates MC is involved. The last digit is a check digit, so you're left with a minimum possible account number variance of ten billion per bank. Realistically speaking, banks can't use all these numbers. Ten repeated digits, a pattern of repeated digits, etc. don't make a good account number. These get discarded. Additionally, banks likely use the first several digits of the account number to categorize customers. This could be by program, regionally, by relationship with the bank, etc. Banks with a high level of both clients and categorization run out of acceptable account numbers and reach out to MC for another BIN. MC doesn't have any available, so they reach out to buy more of the 'spectrum.'

This is a Visa example, but I just went through my sock drawer and wallet to find 4 different Chase BINs. Freedom and Ink+ were one. FU, CSP, CSR, were another. Debit card was a third, and Ritz was a fourth.

[UncleB]

There are some old threads somewhere from when this was originally announced, but now that we are approaching it becoming 'live' we'll be hearing more about it.

Frankly, I will avoid any cards starting with '2' like the plague, since there's bound to be acceptance issues here and there (no matter how much MasterCard insists that all merchants be 'on board').  I have enough 'drama' already... LOL.

@Anonymous, thanks for this reminder and please keep us posted with any changes you hear about!