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Federal Law Requires All Businesses to Truncate Credit Card Information on Receipts

Since December 1, 2006 the electronically printed credit and debit card receipts containing the account information must be shortened, or truncated.

According to the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA), businesses may include no more than the last five digits of the card number, and they must delete the card’s expiration date. For example, a receipt that truncates the credit card number and deletes the expiration date could look like this:

ACCT: ***********12345
EXP: ****

Noncompliance could open a company up to an FTC law enforcement action, including civil penalties and injunctive relief. In addition, the law allows consumers to sue businesses that don’t comply and to collect damages and attorney’s fees.


Note these details: It applies only to electronically printed receipts, not to handwritten or imprinted ones. And it applies only to receipts you given to customers at point of sale, not to any transaction record retained.

When a business keeps a customers’ personal information they have an obligation to keep it safe.