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.

The AU on my Ameriprise World Elite personal mastercard had a different number than my card.

My employee has a different card # as an AU on my Chase Ink acct.!!

All three of my Aadvantage Executive Mastercards have the same number. My daughter spent a year at King's College in London (the card never seemed to cool off) and her UK charges never impacted our ability to charge on the same card number in the U.S.

No problem reaching $40,000 12-month spend for 10,000 EQM that year...

See previous posts and responses below:

reclusive46 - sorry I didn't notice your question. Personally, this hasn't occurred to me, but it did to my parents many times where they sometimes go abroad separately. I don't recall them mentioning that it should ever be an issue. Right now, they switched to using Amex Plat so each card has a different number, but in the past they had a Visa with no forex fee.

so interesting to see this post from 12 yrs ago. wow.

good to see someone like MIA knows what theyre talking about.

altho adding AUs is discussed often, i never see the finer details like card number / online access / management etc.

for anyone like me discovering this post, FYI:

amex + barclays + cap1 (personal) - all different accnt numbers. this is ideal.

but all other personal bank cards give same copy info as the primary user. i hate this so much. bofa citi WF USB discover etc all do this.

at least all business cards have different numbers. i have not seen any bank issue employee cards w/ same info as primary. that would be stupid.

also, amex def has the best online support for AU management w/ settings. cap1 is not bad either. not sure which one is the most terrible tho. chase and USB kinda suck.

Here are some other ones I've had before that definitely have unique numbers for AU:

Comenity Caesars Rewards
Citi Retail Shop Your Way
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I can't believe that 12 years down the line Chase still hasn't switched personal AU cards to have unique numbers like Amex does. It absolutely drives me nuts.

Once upon a time my wife's cards were issued not only with the same number, but with my name embossed on the front, and her signature on the back.

Many HSA (health savings account) debit cards are like this. There is no such thing as a joint (or even family) HSA account (though a family contribution limit exists), so whoever opened the account gets their name on the account and dependents (spouses, kids, etc) who might need to use the funds get an identical card to the primary, only they are supposed to sign the back. And share the same PIN, IIRC. Crazy.

I've always wondered if two people using the same card number as an AU, would hit a fare cap on transit twice as fast, like in NYC or London. Since they both have the same CVV and Exp Date, why wouldn't the system recognize it as the same card. As long as they don't travel together, the system thinks its two different trips each time?

Not that I encourage this type of behavior, just out of curiosity...

Even though the account number, expiration date, and CVV are the same, the contactless chips are not identical.

This is true, but I'd be willing to bet it could still cause issues for some transit systems where they aggregate your charges for the day. Just because they have access to more detailed information through the chip doesn't mean some developer didn't use the card number as the primary key in the database.

Previously it was mentioned about hitting fare caps, but the place where I think it would be particularly bad is those transit systems that track your in & out places. Once card X has entered at a location, they can't enter again without exiting (so it knows what fare to charge). So if person A with card number X enters and their significant other with AU card X tries to enter behind them, it might not work.

Again, this assumes that someone used the card number as the key in the database, but I'm also certain there is a system out there where this at least WAS a problem at some point.

My wife is an AU on my Citi Costco card and her account number is different than mine.

I think Costco mandates this due to membership / picture on card requirements.

Apparently Chase is now doing this, at least for Sapphire Reserve accounts: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chas...t-numbers.html

I ran into the in-and-out problem on the Singapore MRT.

My mom uses her Visa card (same account number as mine, as she's an authorized user on my account) to tap in before me, which works fine as expected. I tap in with my card (same card number), and I can't get past the gates.

Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) issues separate numbers for an authorized user (AU). As someone who does a fair number of balance transfers, I find the record-keeping much simpler with my Chase UA and Marriott (single-number) cards.

Yes. I've had the same issues in London and Amsterdam. Myself, Wife and son each using "their" AA Executive M/C confused the heck out of the transit system. I ended up in London with fines because I didn't exit. Well I did - we all did!

thank you for the input. i didnt know about comentiy and citi cobrands. i assume its something w/ the partnership.

aaa (comentiy) and fidelity also has same numbers for AU.

doc has a good list but very old and limited:
http://www.doctorofcredit.com/card-i...thorized-users

almost all my AUs are on amex. wat a shame cuz i want solid VISA and MC AUs options.