On Fri, 2 Mar 2012 01:56:58 +0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"
wrote:

Charles Ellson wrote:
On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:05:59 -0600, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
On 01-Mar-12 17:51, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
Stephen Sprunk wrote:

There is no way for the terminal to know whether the Visa/MC/etc. number
presented is a credit, debit or charge card. A card processor _may_ be
able to deduce it from other information, but only the issuing bank
knows for sure.

I have no idea how you come up with this stuff, but the type of card,
not to mention who issued it, is built into the number range itself.

The first digit or two identifies the network; the next several digits
identify the issuing bank. Nowhere in the number is encoded whether it
is a credit, debit or charge card. Even if some issuing banks choose to
encode that in the remaining digits, there is no guarantee they will all
do so--or in the same way.

http://bin-iin.com/visa-BIN-range.html
for some VISA listings.

Oh, look: 4416 69 Visa Gift Card

Any number of the ranges are for debit cards. I assume ranges not
listed are for Master

Frayed Knot, Mastercard begin with 5XXX :-
http://bin-iin.com/MasterCard-BIN-List.html

and other card brands. ATM cards would be
in their own ranges, separate from other debit cards.

ATM cards don't necessarily have a (visible?) number (apart from the
account name or number) if they are neither credit nor debit cards.

Wonkypaedia covers a wider spread across the number ranges :-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...cation_Numbers

All this stuff is known. The whole list is for sale for under $200
on that Web page.