FACTA Limits Credit Card Number on Receipts

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, also known as FACTA, was passed in 2003 as an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to protect individuals and consumers from identity theft. By limiting the appearance of credit card numbers on receipts, FACTA helps protect consumers from identity theft.

According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, roughly 50 million people are affected by identity theft, and financial identity theft is the most common form.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, “[T]his Act, amending the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), adds provisions designed to improve the accuracy of consumers’ credit related records.”

Essentially, the federal agency says of this amendment that consumers can do several things, all of which allows protection against identify theft by allowing them to check their credit scores.

The amendment gives consumers the “right of one free credit report a year from the credit reporting agencies.” The amendment also gives consumers added protection to mitigate identity theft by “enabling consumers to place fraud alerts in their credit files.”

These added amendments to the FCRA all help form the FACTA enacted to protect consumers against identify theft.

Moreover, FACTA includes a requirement known as primary account number truncation. This is used as added protection for U.S. consumers against identity theft and prevents businesses from printing too many digits of credit card numbers on receipts.

The FACTA privacy protections provision states that “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.”

By allowing such protection against the full display of a consumer’s credit card numbers on receipts, or back account number, consumers are more protected.

On receipts that are within FACTA compliance, wildcard characters may appear in place of the consumer’s credit card or debit card numbers except for the last five. And according to the law, if a consumer has made a purchase and the retailer prints more than the last 5 digits of the consumer’s credit card numbers on receipts, the may be able to file a civil FACTA lawsuit against the business.

According to FACTA, no part of the expiration date of either a debit card or credit card may be shown on a receipt. Examples of FACTA violations, include the following: Exp. Date 03/**; Exp. **/17; and Exp 0317.

These are only some examples of violations of the expiration date clause and do not include all examples. In effect, no part of a consumer’s expiration date may appear.

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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