FACTA Law Regulates Debit Card Receipt Safety

Some customers are worried about identity theft and debit card receipt safety.

Many consumers use their debit cards for daily transactions. If you have made a purchase and the merchant printed more than the last five digits of your debit card number on your receipt then that merchant may have been in violation of federal law.

Debit card receipt safety is protected under a law called FACTA. FACTA stands for the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act.

This law regulates the way that retailers print sensitive financial information on receipts and protects the credit and debit card receipt safety of consumers.

The reason this information is regulated is to protect consumers from identity theft and theft of personal finances.

If sensitive financial information is printed on a credit or debit card receipt, an identity thief could be able to piece together information from that receipt.

Retailers can violate the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act in a couple ways. A merchant has violated FACTA if they include any portion of the expiration date on the customer receipt.

They can also violate FACTA by including any numbers other than the last five digits of the credit card or debit card number on the customer receipt.

FACTA was passed by Congress in 2003 to fight against the increasing problem of identity theft.

When the amount of information on a debit or credit card receipt is restricted, this is called truncation. A truncated receipt might have a symbol such as “#” or “*” in the place of numbers. This is done to hide or mask sensitive financial information.

When this is done correctly, the merchant is considered in compliance with FACTA. However, even though this law is over 13 years old, some merchants may still not comply with FACTA and may print either the expiration date or too many digits on receipts.

According to FACTA “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 the expiration date upon any receipt provided to the cardholder at the point of the sale or transaction.”

The retailer may also not print the expiration date in any way on a receipt. This is true even if the merchant hides some of the digits of the expiration date. The date may not appear at all on the receipt.

FACTA receipt printing laws do not apply to receipts that are handwritten, only to digitally printed receipts.

If a merchant has been in willful or negligent violation of FACTA and a customer believes his or her debit card receipt safety has been at risk, the customer may have a right to monetary compensation.

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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