You may already be aware that with the growing rate of identity theft and fraud, Visa and MasterCard have passed regulations requiring merchants to comply with "account number truncation" rules - a rather technical term for a pretty simple concept. According to the card associations, account number truncation requires that merchant accounts suppress - or hide - all but the last four numbers on a printed cardholder receipt, as well as the card expiration date.

In addition, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) (15 U.S.C. §1681) and many states' laws require merchants to comply with account truncation rules. Federal and state legal deadlines will vary, but in some states, the deadline for compliance has already passed. For specifics about the laws and requirements in your state, please visit your state's legislative website. For a discussion of the federal FCRA deadlines download this pdf document from the FTC.

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Compliance deadlines
Visa required that all terminals deployed after July 1, 2003 be in compliance immediately. Terminals that have been in use prior to July 1, 2003 must comply by July 1, 2006. MasterCard has set its new and existing terminal deadline at April 1, 2005.

Meeting the deadlines for Visa and MasterCard will satisfy federal/FCRA requirements. However, some states' deadlines for compliance have already passed. Please keep in mind that each business owner is responsible for ensuring that cardholder receipt printing procedures are compliant with federal laws, state laws and Visa/MasterCard regulations.