Parrot is Spreading its Wings

Here at Pagos, our team is working hard every day to ensure we have access to the most accurate and meaningful BIN data possible. Not only do we use this BIN data to enrich our Peacock and Canary visualizations and insights, but we also pass it along directly to our customers via the Parrot and Parrot Batch APIs. Ultimately, the better BIN data our birds have, the more valuable eggs they can hatch for you!

Today, we wanted to update you on some of the enhancements we’ve made in our Parrot API that enable us to provide you with more details about your customers’ payment cards. Primarily, we’re adding more details to inform you when there are multiple networks available for a BIN. 

Identify Additional Networks

Until now, Parrot’s standard response to a BIN lookup query returned only the first global network entry for a given BIN. Here’s an example response from the Parrot API for the BIN number 401628:

As you can see in the example response above, the JSON object highlights the card type and product details for this BIN as the Glynn County Federal Credit Union on the Visa network. What’s missing from this data, however, is the fact that this particular card also has debit network capabilities. As is, you’d have no way of knowing you could also process this particular card as a debit card—meaning, you’re potentially offering a poor checkout experience to the associated cardholder.  

Going forward, Parrot will return an additional_networks array that enumerates the other networks available for the requested BIN, such as NYCE and Culiance. With this update, you’ll see that additional information presented in the JSON response as:

With this supplementary BIN data, you’ll be ​better equipped to immediately identify and understand the implications of multiple networks on a single payment card, and thus offer your customers a more straightforward and efficient checkout experience. The Pagos team of payments professionals all agree that the key to designing the best payments strategy for your business is having the full picture of who your customers are and what payment cards they’re using—meaning data like this can be a real game changer.

Try Parrot Today!

You may recall that Parrot gives you access to first party BIN data from the networks to power better analysis, cost tracking, customer service and fraud detection—all in one easy-to-use service. At this time, we have over several hundred thousand BIN records across several networks being updated weekly in the US alone. 

We know there’s a lot more BIN data out there to help highlight other processing capabilities and flags, and we’re committed to ever-evolving our Parrot services to bring that data directly to you. Additionally, we are fully ready to help companies manage the changes brought on by the upcoming migration on April 15, 2022 from 6-digit BINs to 8-digit BINs.

Create a free trial account to get started with Parrot today!