Authorised Users with same card number
 

Hi guys,
Does anyone have any experience with how good fraud systems are when an authorised user has the same card number as you and you are abroad and they are not or vice versa?

Does that not throw up problems as it could look like someone has travelled around the world in 10 minutes. Will that not cause an issue or are fraud systems clever enough to notice the different discretionary data and PAN chip number? In this case the card provider I'm referring to is Capital One.

The AU cards I've had always have a different number. Same acct. but diff. #.

In my experience, this is usually only the case with Amex cards. With Mastercards and Visas the numbers on all the cards are the same (both primary and authorized users), but the names are different. At least this is the case with my current Amex accounts - different numbers on each card - as opposed to my Visa and Mastercards where the numbers are all the same.

The Ink Bold MC employee (AU) cards are different numbers under the same account too.

Amex gives different numbers, but I though VISA/MC do not.

That said, when you swipe the card there is more data on the mag strip than the numbers and the banks can tell which card was used. Similar, they track if it was an actual swipe versus an on-line input for their files.

Or so I read. If some one wants to challenge the assertion, I could be wrong.

In the UK it just seems to vary by issuer. Capital One and MBNA have different numbers. The actual banks and Amex will generally issue different numbers.

Possibly because that is a business card - I do have an Ink Bold but haven't added employee/AU cards so was not aware if they use the same numbers or not. The other Visas and Mastercards I hold are all personal.

From your experience have you ever had any of your AU's using their card abroad or just far away and then transactions in your normal area? Did it cause any issues?

In my experience:

• Business accounts assign a unique number to each card. Any issuer, any network: Amex, MasterCard or VISA.
• Personal accounts issued by American Express assign a unique number to each card.
• Personal accounts issued by other US based banks, even if Amex-network, typically assign the name number to all cards on the same account.

However, if a card is swiped the issuer can determine which card was used, even if the embossed number is the same, and there should be no problem with cards being used in different shops, cities or countries simultaneously.

Ah ok thats great. Thanks for your help guys. Thought I'd better check haha, first time I've been with an issuer that uses same card number.

Another odd wrinkle...my Personal Barclays Upromise MC has a slightly different number then my AU's. As I recall it maybe only the last 4 digits that are different.

Does anyone know of a USA based personal MC or Visa card that will issue additional cards with different numbers? My specific need is for a family member that has household staff and would like to break out each staff member purchases. I had to resort to a business card product

Personal Barclays Upromise MC.
And it does separate it on the statement.

My boyfriend and I have Visa and Mastercard cards from Citibank and AmEx cards, and it has never been a problem. Visa and Mastercsrd do have the same card numbers but it never caused any problems. We usually let them know if either of uss is travelling but even if we're not it never caused a problem. And we permanently live abroad to begin with.

I've never seen one.

A business card would seem to be the best solution. Alternatives would be to use an Amex personal product or to just open a separate personal account for this purpose and put the primary cardholder's card in a drawer.