Online Bank Identification Number (BIN) Database providers review.

Hello, my name is Scott Myers and I am a Data Acquisition Specialist at a software company, developing payment processing software.

This website is dedicated to documenting my experience in evaluating the top BIN Database data providers.


Recently, during a project which required identifying credit cards which the customers enter in our system, we ran into an interesting method of doing this.

Every credit card has a 16 digit number which identifies it's owner and properties, however to determine the issuing bank, country and funding type you can use only the first six digits of the card number.

Those first six digits are called a Bank Identification Number or BIN in short and is assigned to every card by it's issuing bank. It is not unlike a phone area code which tells you where the phone number is located.

The BIN, however contains much more details about the customer's card which we needed for our payment processing decisions.


After an extensive research on the data providers in this area, from which we could acquire a BIN directory in the form of a database or an online service.


We had several criteria when choosing a BIN Database data provider which I listed below:


- The BIN Database needs to be able to determine if a card is Debit or Credit

- We needed to know the name of the bank which issued the card and where it was located. Ideally it's address or phone.

- The database had to be able to identify if a card is a Prepaid card, Gift card or a Virtual Card.

- We needed regular updates as accuracy was critical

- Last but not least, we needed to be able to verify the company's reputation and validity before committing to a purchase


Below I have listed my report where I gathered information about the top four companies compared by features they provide:

bindb.com maxmind.com binbase.com bin2country.com
Is there a company behind the website
Yes, BinDB LLC
(registered in USA)

 Yes, Maxmind Inc.
(registered in USA)		 There is no company
behind the website		 There is no company
behind the website
Downloadable DB check cross check check
Phone Support check check cross cross
Parameters count in DB 14 5 11 2
Bank Identification number check check check check
Car Brand check cross check cross
Issuing Bank check check (partial) check (partial) cross
Card Type (Credit/Debit) check cross check cross
Card Funding Level check check (partial) check cross
Prepaid Cards check check check cross
Virtual / Gift Cards check cross cross cross
Country ISO name check cross check check
Issuing country ISO A2 code check check check check
Issuing country ISO A3 code check cross check cross
Issuing country ISO number check cross check cross
Additional Info check cross cross cross
Card Issuing istitution website check cross check cross
Card Customer care phone line check check check cross
Former Issuing istitution name check cross cross cross
Issuing istitution address check cross cross cross
Full list of card types/level check cross cross cross
CSV/XML Formats check cross check check
Additional Support Formats check cross check check
SQL - MySQL,MSSQL,Oracle,Posgresql check cross cross cross
API service check check cross check
Web Client area check check cross cross
Free Updates check check check check
IP Database check check check check
SWIFT(BIC) Database check cross cross cross
Online order process check check check check
Offline order process check cross check cross
24/7 Support check check cross cross
Specific Banking systems in EU check cross cross cross
Extended BIN Validation check cross cross cross

Summary


Customer support was a major factor in our BIN Database provider choice, since we needed to work with the data provider in the process of integrating the data in our software solutions.

I attempted to get as much details by contacting the different companies' sales lines. Below I have listed my findings:


BIN2Country - There is no phone listed in the website. I send a request through their contact form, however I received no response. Information in the table is compiled from what is published on the website.


MaxMind - I was able to call them and got a good detailed response on all my questions. However, their products do not seem to include a downloadable version of the database, which we need for integration on our end.


BinBase - They responded to my emails. There is a phone number listed in their website, however I was always redirected to a voicemail.


BinDB.com - I was able to reach them by phone and got my questions answered. After my request they provided me with a technical documentation about how the database can be integrated.



Conclusion


Compiling this report took me almost a month. Based on the number of features, reliability and level of customer services our company was looking for we decided to go with BinDB's Ultimate Database.

BinDB were able to provide us with a the most flexible and cost effective product than all the vendors we researched.

I created this page without the intention of marketing their services.

I am putting my findings out there to help other developers and companies save time and resources in investigating the field.