Credit card expiration dates - Inclusive or exclusive?

Question

Say you've got a credit card number with an expiration date of 05/08 - i.e. May 2008.

Does that mean the card expires on the morning of the 1st of May 2008, or the night of the 31st of May 2008?

rjzii · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-20T13:52:04.367

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It took me a couple of minutes to find a site that I could source for this.

The card is valid until the last day of the month indicated, after the last [sic]¹ day of the next month; the card cannot be used to make a purchase if the merchant attempts to obtain an authorization. - Source

Also, while looking this up, I found an interesting article on Microsoft's website using an example like this, exec summary: Access 2000 for a month/year defaults to the first day of the month, here's how to override that to calculate the end of the month like you'd want for a credit card.

Additionally, this page has everything you ever wanted to know about credit cards.

This is assumed to be a typo and that it should read "..., after the first day of the next month; ..."

edited Mar 20 '17 at 13:52

answered Sep 10 '08 at 13:40

rjzii

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from @rob below: I would have to double check, but I think it applies more to transactions that haven't cleared yet as opposed to new purchases. Since you can use the card through the end of the month, their might be some transactions that are still pending when the physical card expires. – Tilendor Mar 05 '10 at 19:02
@Coronatus - The site that I got the original quote from seems to have changed the link, but I think they meant for that to say "after the first day of the next month." – rjzii Aug 28 '10 at 18:01
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Thankfully, I had 1 credit card which actually printed the full date (ie: the last day of the month). I still had to wonder whether it worked for the entirety of the last day, but it was at least useful. – Dinah Oct 02 '10 at 06:06
""after the first day of the next month."" would mean that the first day itself would be considered OK, which is probably wrong. – don bright Apr 30 '13 at 11:06
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@donbright - I've updated the quote with some additional commentary. Since it is a direct quote I'm assuming that they meant the first day of the next month and not the last day of the next month. From a legal standpoint, I seem to recall that that would mean that the card would expire exactly at midnight of the the last day in the expiration month. – rjzii Apr 30 '13 at 12:01
Nice info! love the last link. The second link however does not lead to relevant content. – GIVE-ME-CHICKEN Mar 20 '17 at 13:20
@GIVE-ME-CHICKEN Got to love Microsoft with their non-archiving links. – rjzii Mar 20 '17 at 13:52
*until the last day of the month*, implies that it would not be valid *during* the last day of the month – koryakinp Dec 20 '19 at 16:07

score 16 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 10 '08 at 13:40

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If you are writing a site which takes credit card numbers for payment:

You should probably be as permissive as possible, so that if it does expire, you allow the credit card company to catch it. So, allow it until the last second of the last day of the month.
Don't write your own credit card processing code. If^H^HWhen you write a bug, someone will lose real money. We all make mistakes, just don't make decisions that turn your mistakes into catastrophes.

answered Sep 10 '08 at 13:40

Christian Oudard

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For the uninitaited, what does `If^H^HWhen` expand to mean? :s – user66001 Jan 31 '14 at 18:58
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`^H` is a way of representing the backspace control code. – Jim Feb 01 '14 at 11:20

score 12 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 10 '08 at 13:34

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Have a look on one of your own credit cards. It'll have some text like EXPIRES END or VALID THRU above the date. So the card expires at the end of the given month.

answered Sep 10 '08 at 13:34

Dave Webb

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haha...good point. i never realized that it was so explicate myself! – Stu Thompson Sep 10 '08 at 13:37

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 10 '08 at 13:32

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In my experience, it has expired at the end of that month. That is based on the fact that I can use it during that month, and that month is when my bank sends a new one.

answered Sep 10 '08 at 13:32

Chris Marasti-Georg

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score 5 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 05 '13 at 16:20

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According to Visa's "Card Acceptance and Chargeback Management Guidelines for Visa Merchants"; "Good Thru" (or "Valid Thru") Date is the expiration date of the card:

A card is valid through the last day of the month shown, (e .g ., if the Good Thru date is 03/12,the card is valid through March 31, 2012 and expires on April 1, 2012 .)

It is located below the embossed account number. If the current transaction date is after the "Good Thru" date, the card has expired.

edited Dec 05 '13 at 16:20

Royce Williams

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answered Sep 10 '08 at 13:48

Jack Snipes

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+1 For visa.com source. Thanks for the [edit](http://stackoverflow.com/posts/54078/revisions) also [Royce Williams](http://stackoverflow.com/users/263879/royce-williams) (Much better to have the quote in the answer, with a link to the source). – user66001 Jan 31 '14 at 19:01

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 05 '09 at 02:46

lots of big companies dont even use your expiration date anymore because it causes auto-renewal of payments to be lost when cards are issued with new expiration dates and the same account number. This has been a huge problem in the service industry, so these companies have cornered the card issuers into processing payments w/o expiration dates to avoid this pitfall. Not many people know about this yet, so not all companies use this practice.

Eric Hogue · Answer 7 · 2008-09-10T13:44:53.130

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I process a lot of credit card transaction at work, and I can tell you that the expiry date is inclusive.

Also, I agree with Gorgapor. Don't write your own processing code. They are some good tools out there for credit card processing. Here we have been using Monetra for 3 years and it does a pretty decent job at it.

edited Sep 10 '08 at 13:44

answered Sep 10 '08 at 13:39

Eric Hogue

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 14 '15 at 07:46

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How do time zones factor in this analysis. Does a card expire in New York before California? Does it depend on the billing or shipping addresses?

answered Apr 14 '15 at 07:46

wizardwerdna

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 26 '09 at 15:07

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I had a Automated Billing setup online and the credit card said it say good Thru 10/09, but the card was rejected the first week in October and again the next week. Each time it was rejected it cost me a $10 fee. Don't assume it good thru the end of the month if you have automatic billing setup.

answered Oct 26 '09 at 15:07

Michael Grosser

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I would file a complaint/bug with the payee or the automated billing provider. One or both of them are not properly interpreting the guidelines. – Royce Williams Dec 06 '13 at 02:54

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 10 '08 at 13:45

In your example a credit card is expired on 6/2008.

Without knowing what you are doing I cannot say definitively you should not be validating ahead of time but be aware that sometimes business rules defy all logic.

For example, where I used to work they often did not process a card at all or would continue on transaction failure simply so they could contact the customer and get a different card.

Credit card expiration dates - Inclusive or exclusive?

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