Hello,

anyone knows if there is a company which has an option that only CHECKS wether the Credit Card is valid or not.

I know you can check the digits of a CC using the luhn and mod formula's, but still that's isn't 100% bulletproof.

I see many of you at WHT got a merchant account or working with companies who do CC transaction, I wonder if you've ever seen an option like this.

I tried to mail worldpay about this, but they keep saying that worldpay is only used to BUY things from the internet. Strange ofcourse..

If there isn't a service that only checks wether your CC is valid or not, could some one please tell me the minium amount of money you should debt when you do a CC transaction.

I mean if this amount is only $1, then I can dept this amount from the given CC, when it passes I then would know that the given CC is correct.

Love to hear from you all!

That's what most people do. For instance, when getting a blockbuster membership card, they charge your card $20 and then refund it. I don't think you can "check" it as a feature, you have to actually charge it.

Whatever you do, your customer will probably want their money back. I'd suggest something more like $2.

Richard

Why would you just want to check if the CC # is valid? The only purpose I see for this is using a credit card generator to get numbers to purchase things online...yes/no???

Perhaps I am stepping out of line, just curious as to how you see this service of use to people?

I figured he just wanted to confirm the number without charging. In the world of ACH it's called a prenote, and a very wise thing to do.

Maybe he bills at the end of the month?

Richard

Originally posted by HostDragon
[B]I know you can check the digits of a CC using the luhn and mod formula's, but still that's isn't 100% bulletproof.

He is only confirming the validity of the credit card number itself, not the balance available.

If there isn't a service that only checks wether your CC is valid or not, could some one please tell me the minium amount of money you should debt when you do a CC transaction.

He wants to know the minimum amount to charge a credit card...doesn't sound like billing someone to me.


Again, just my 2 cents...I am still trying to figure out the benefit to this. I completely understand the usefullness of PRE-AUTHORIZING credit cards to ensure their is sufficient balance to cover a transaction.

The only reasons I could think that he would need to do what he wants places him in a weird situation, that he should already know what he's asking.

I agree with you, it seems fishy. But I can see reason for it, just not from someone who has to ask. For instance, something like PayPal, to verify ownership and authority of the card holder...we do similar. But, if he was doing that, he probably wouldn't be asking those questions.

Richard

If I understand the question correctly - i.e. that the goal is to merely validate the card beyond just confirming that the CC# is "possibly valid" - the answer here is that you can do a pre-authorization transaction.

If you pre-auth a card for a certain amount - say the amount of the purchase or some arbitrary amount like $1 or $0.01, then you can get a real-time approval that the card is valid.

You can also get the AVS and CVV2 match results at the same time to authenticate whether the order looks like a good risk or whether it warrants further investigation.

Unless you subsequently capture and settle the transaction, no charge will actually take place to the cardholder.

When a pre-auth is done, all that happens is that the amount of the trans is "temporarily" deducted from the cardholder's credit line. Unless and until it is actually "captured" and "settled", a pre-auth will auto drop out after a specific interval of time.

This interval of time is determined by the cardholder issuing bank.

You will see pre-auths done with a lot of manufacturers. For instance, they may pre-auth your card to verify and reserve the line of credit but they won't actually charge it/settle it until they ship the product.

Same thing is done with pay-at-the-pump dispensers, hotel reservations and various other applications.

vcrub allows you to do such checks.
bue they are very agressive sometimes.

regards,