FACTA Exists to Protect Credit Card Information

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) passed in 2003 was enacted to protect credit card information, keeping it from the hands of would-be identity thieves.

FACTA works to protect credit card information by allowing only a portion of an account number, the last five digits, to appear on a printed receipt from a sales transaction. Other digits of the associated account number may be replaced by placeholder symbols such as asterisks and pound signs.

The process of acting to protect credit card information by truncation is further aided by another rule of FACTA that disallows the printing of any credit card expiration date on a printed receipt.

These rules apply to printed receipts from electronic cash registers at stores, restaurants, and kiosks. The exception to them are small businesses that may only have access to old-fashioned imprint machines where there is no choice but to run all the information from the front of the card.

The consumer in this case is responsible to secure the data released by his or her copy of the receipt. This same exception would apply to handwritten receipts.

FACTA’s effort to protect credit card information is guided by very specific rules for a reason. If a would-be identity thief has access to more than five digits of a credit card number and expiration date, by process of elimination they would have a greater chance at determining the identity of the corresponding account holder. For this reason, it is critical that merchants be held to a standard of complete and total compliance.

Unfortunately, when actual transaction receipts are reviewed regularly, many have found out that merchants are failing to protect credit card information in accordance with the letter of the FACTA law.

The following errors may seem simple, but are still examples of account number printing errors that are punishable by law:

Account Printing Error 1: 11** 23** **** 8166

Account Printing Error 2: **** **05 **** 3596

Account Printing Error 3: *25* **** **33 ****

Account Printing Error 4: EX 0118

Account Printing Error 5: EXPIRY 22020

Account Printing Error 6: Expdate 0418

If you have noticed errors of these kinds on any of your receipts by merchants, you may be eligible for compensation. This is true regardless of whether actual identity theft has occurred, or other harm engendered because of this negligence. The act of working to protect credit card information should be the concern of all merchants all the time according to FACTA.

In addition to the protections mentioned, FACTA allows for a free credit report to be accessed from one of the major credit bureaus annually by consumers. It also allows for a person that suspects identity theft to put an alert on their personal identifiable information (PII) in case it is used to open more credit.

This alert requires a credit bureau to freeze the opening of any additional credit without contacting the associated consumer. Finally, FACTA allows for deploying military to also put holds on any credit applications while they are overseas to protect them while they are engaged in national service.

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.

Get Started