What is primary account number (PAN) on payment Cards in Nigeria?

What is primary account number (PAN) – If you are familiar with your payment cards/credit card, debit card, etc.., at the point of consummating transaction online you are required to provide your PAN.

The primary account number is often written/crested on your payment card, could be 14, 15, 16 or 19-digit with recourse to the payment card provider.

This guide will address the following;

1. PAN digits

2. Primary account example

3. Primary account meaning

4. PAN debit card

5. What is pan number in Nigeria

6. What is card pan on ATM card, etc..

What is primary account number?

The primary account number is a unique identifier for different payment cards like the credit and debit cards, which provides information about the cardholder, this include; name, balance, credit limit, etc. PANs support account record keeping and resolution if issues should arise with such account.

For Nigerian debit cards, PAN is the 16-digit number written/crested in front of your payment card.

How PANs work

Your PAN is different from bank account, codes, etc. PANs are generated automatically the moment a new account is been opened for a customer and are only used on payment cards to facilitate payments.

For Nigerian cards, the PANs are 16-digit, although all PANs follow the same basic structure, where the first few digits identify the issuing company and credit card network.

While the final digit is called a checksum number used for security reasons.

Primary account number digits

The digit on a PAN number could be 14, 15, 16 or 19 depending on the issuer and card type.

Primary account number example

For master cards, it could appears thus; 5533 2435 9876 1243 while American Express cards start with 3xxxxxxxxxxx, Visa card start with 4xxxxxxxxx, Discover cards start with 6xxxxxxxx, while certain telecommunication and health care cards start with 8xxxxxxxxxx….

What is Primary account?

Primary account means, the account from which purchase transactions, charges and fees related to the debit card are debited.

In case of multiple accounts linked to the debit card, it refers to an account that has been designated as being the main or first account of operation.