Checkout flow should have as little friction as possible. Eliminating unnecessary selections and typing is a great way to go about achieving as little checkout friction as possible. The fewer hoops a customer has to jump through, the sooner they can make a purchase. 

Asking customers to select their credit card type is a good example of a needlessly bothersome step since the credit card issuer can be easily identified by the first few digits of any card number.

Failing to automatically detect the credit card type will also be incredibly frustrating to your customers and leave them confused on how to go about it since a vast majority of sites on the internet already detect the card type once the first few digits are entered. 

Credit card type can be quickly determined by the Issuer Identification Number (IIN) which consists of the first few digits (up to 8) of the card number. For example, all Visa cards start with a 4. Below is a full list of IIN numbers for all major cards.

 

Card Type IINs
Visa 4
Visa Electron 4026, 4405, 4508, 4844, 4913, 

4917,417500,
Mastercard 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 

222100, 272099
American Express 34, 37
Discover 65, 644, 645, 646, 647, 648, 649, 

6011, 

622126 – 622925
Maestro 500000 – 509999,

560000 – 589999,

600000 – 699999
Diners Club USA & Canada 54, 55
Diners Club International 36, 38, 39 

300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 309
Diners Club Carte Blanche 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305
China Union Pay 62
JCB 3528 – 3589
UATP 1
Dankort 5019
Switch 4903, 4905, 4911, 4936, 6333, 6749, 564182, 633110, 

Examples