FACTA Receipt Laws Mandate Credit and Debit Card Truncation

A debit or credit card receipt that displays a full account number and expiration date are easy targets for identity thieves.

On December 4, 2003, President Bush signed the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA).

According to FACTA receipt laws, a debit or credit card receipt may not include more than the last five digits of the card number.

The stated purpose of FACTA is to provide consumers, companies, consumer reporting agencies and regulators with important new tools to expand access to credit and other financial services and to enhance the accuracy of the consumers’ financial information while helping to fight identify theft.

FACTA receipt laws center on combating identity fraud and protecting consumer privacy.

Identity theft is a significant, and growing, worldwide problem. All businesses, large and small, that issue electronically generated credit and debit cards receipts to consumers at the point of transaction are subject to the “truncation” requirement of FACTA receipt laws in order to protect consumers from identity thieves.

Compliance with FACTA Receipt Laws

In addition to requiring credit and debit card numbers be truncated on receipts, FACTA receipt laws prohibit the printing of the card’s expiration date on the cardholder’s receipt.

However, truncation is not applicable to receipts for that are handwritten or recorded as a card imprint.

Compliance for FACTA receipt laws was enforceable in December 2006. Any businesses that have not complied with FACTA receipt laws are subject to heavy fines and open themselves up to possible legal action.

In fact, a common thread among the many FACTA lawsuits is the reference to businesses having had three years to comply with credit card truncation requirements.

Example of FACTA Receipt Truncation

Credit and debit card receipt truncation is important to protect the customer from losing his or her card number if he or she loses a receipt.

It also protects both the merchant and the customer by not allowing the credit card number to be printed and therefore preventing fraudulent situations. Below is an example of a truncated and non-truncated receipt:

Example 1: Truncated Receipt
Acct# – **** **** **** 7777
Exp ****

Example 2: Non-truncated Receipt
Acct# – 1234 5678 9000 0000
Exp 00/00

If a receipt resembles the second example, or the expiration date is printed on the receipt, then the credit receipt is a violation of FACTA receipt laws.

Penalties for Violating FACTA Receipt Laws

Violations of FACTA receipt laws can be costly. If a business is found to be “willful,” they are exposed to liability of between $100 and $1,000 per violation, plus attorney fees and costs.

Since a FACTA violation occurs each time a non-compliant receipt is issued—and many merchants issue dozens, if not hundreds, of debit and credit card receipts per day—potential liability can reach many millions of dollars for retailers found to have “willfully” violated FACTA receipt laws.

If you were provided an electronically printed credit or debit card receipt at the point of sale or transaction on which the expiration date or number of your credit or debit card was printed, you may be eligible to file a FACTA lawsuit.

Free FACTA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you made one or more purchases and the retailer provided you with a receipt that contained more than the last five digits of your credit or debit card number or the expiration date, you may be eligible for a free class action lawsuit investigation and to pursue compensation for these FACTA violations.

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