Credit Card Receipts and FACTA: What You Need To Know

Identity theft is a serious problem that plagues the American consumer.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), each year over 9 million identities are stolen in the United States.

To address this issue and aid in the prevention of credit and debit card fraud, the U.S. government enacted that Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or FACTA.

Background on FACTA

In a society inundated by credit and debit card transactions on a daily basis, Congress passed FACTA without much fanfare or publicity.

Congress enacted the new legislation as an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to aid in the prevention of identity theft, and credit or debit card fraud.

Under FACTA, beginning in December 2006, “no person that accepts credit cards or debit cards for the transaction of business shall print more than the last 5 digits of the card number or expiration date upon any receipt provided to the cardholder at the point of sale or transaction.”

This means that, since December 2006, all merchants, both large and small, in the United States have been required to comply with FACTA.

The Purpose of FACTA

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 identity theft.

The main provisions of the law center on combating identity fraud and protecting consumer privacy. Some of the protections include:

• Giving a consumer the right to a free credit report every year
• Requiring that merchants leave off all but the last five digits of credit and debit card numbers and leave off the card expiration date from credit and debit card receipts
• Creating a national system of fraud detection, allowing consumers to make only one call to set off a nationwide fraud alert and establishing a nationwide system of fraud alerts for consumers to place on their credit files
• Requiring regulators to devise a list of red flag indicators of identity theft to use in their compliance examinations and requiring lenders and credit agencies to create similar guidelines to identify patterns common to identity theft in an effort to stop theft before it can cause major damage

FACTA Compliance

FACTA compliance requires businesses that accept credit and debit cards to redact from customers’ receipts the card’s expiration date and all but the last five digits of the credit and debit card number.

Damages for “negligent” noncompliance with FACTA are limited to actual injuries, such as identity theft.“Willful” noncompliance, by contrast, carries damages of $100 to $1,000 per customer as well as punitive damages.

Any merchant that continues to print non-FACTA compliant receipts, and that means truncating the credit and debit card number and leaving off the expiration date, could be subject to enormous statutory damages for putting individuals at risk for identity theft and willful FACTA violations.

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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