Blog – The Architect’s Log

If you are accepting credit card payments from your web site and need to test the transaction process, the credit card companies provide the following “test card numbers.”

Test Credit Card Numbers:
Visa: 4111-1111-1111-1111
MasterCard: 5431-1111-1111-1111
Amex: 341-1111-1111-1111
Discover: 6011-6011-6011-6611

Credit Card Prefix Numbers:
Visa: 13 or 16 numbers starting with 4
MasterCard: 16 numbers starting with 5
Discover: 16 numbers starting with 6011
AMEX: 15 numbers starting with 34 or 37

Use these numbers instead of a real account number to avoid a possible security issue and of course, a possible charge to your real credit account!

You should ALWAYS check a web site’s security before submitting sensitive information like credit card or social security numbers. You may think that just because a business is large or well known that it is safe to purchase from their web site, but that is not true. It all comes down to the web site’s security certificate. These certificates have to be renewed each year and even the best businesses sometimes mistakenly allow them to expire. We’ve even come across businesses without any security at all that are collecting sensitive information! (more…)