What Is Level 1 Credit Card Processing

Level 1 credit card processing is the most basic level of credit card information and includes a credit card number, expiration date, name, and service number. For online purchases level 1 data may not be enough and in some cases, your checkout page should request a zip code and CVV code.

It’s important to note that level 1 data is the first and most critical level of information you gather in order to process a credit card transaction. There are other levels such as level 2, and level 3 data which will delve into later in this article. For now, let’s look more into the specifics of level 1 and why they are the baseline standard.

Types Of Level 1 Data

The basic types of level 1 data are as follows:

1. Credit Card Number: The credit card number is also called the account number and in most cases it’s 15 or 16 digits and has a few unique number features that help businesses understand and verify the data. To elaborate, Visa’s begin with the number 4, while Mastercards start with 5, and American Express starts with a 3.