Effective April 1, 2007 Visa Canada introduced what they refer to as a "Visa Canada Policy" for the protection of card holders. Printing the full list of numbers of a credit card on either the customer or retailer copies violate privacy laws in Canada. Visa Canada for the protection of cardholder information is their number one priority. The policy as I understand it to be is the merchants must suppress the last four digits of the Primary Account Number(PAN) on the printer cardholder receipt. This is a requirement of all retailers in the Visa system. this is what is called Pan Truncation; truncation prevents fraud, including identity theft by denying criminals use of data printed on cardholder transaction receipts.
Visa has asked to be notified through their disputes area at the financial institution that services your card account, of any merchant practices that you feel inappropriate. The Visa card has a 16-digit number which usually appears on your receipts. Big Stores "Truncate" credit card numbers so only the last digits are showing. The rest are blanked out just as they are on the receipts you get from bank machines.
Some merchants are still printing the entire Visa card number which contravenes the new Visa Canada Policy dated April 1, 2007. The printing of the entire 16-digit number can be stopped if the merchant is reported. Visa also states the merchant's copy can contain the full credit card number as he, the merchant may need it for refunds or dispute resolution. Having said this the Federal Privacy Law requires the merchant to safeguard all of the information they collect, they, the merchants can't throw the receipts into a garbage container or dumpster without shredding or leave them exposed to theft by an employee.
I ask all credit cardholders to check their receipts.
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