> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://razorpay-881012b3.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Card Fingerprints (or PAR) API

> Retrieve a unique card reference for a given card or token using the Card Fingerprints API.

<div style={{display:"flex",flexWrap:"wrap",alignItems:"center",gap:"0.35rem 0.9rem",border:"1px solid rgba(128,128,128,0.28)",borderRadius:"0.5rem",padding:"0.45rem 0.75rem",margin:"0 0 1.25rem",fontSize:"0.875rem"}}>
  <span style={{fontWeight:600}}>Available in</span>
  <span>🇮🇳 India</span>
</div>

<Info>
  **Feature Request**

  This is an on-demand feature. Please raise a request with our [Support team](https://razorpay.com/support/#request) to get this feature activated on your Razorpay account.
</Info>

Razorpay works with card networks to return a unique card fingerprint for each card and all tokens created against that card.

This value is unique across the payment ecosystem. It means this fingerprint will act as a global identifier and will not change while processing payments.

You can use the Card Fingerprints API to retrieve:<br />

* **Payment Account Reference** for Mastercard and Visa cards.
* **Network Reference id** for non-tokenised RuPay cards.

## What is Payment Account Reference

Payment Account Reference (PAR) is a 29-character identifier associated with a specific card. It is independent of Razorpay and is provided by card networks and card-issuing banks.

## What is Network Reference ID

Card networks need issuing banks' support to generate PAR value. However, RuPay currently has very low coverage on PAR value and needs to work with a large number of banks to increase the coverage. To overcome this challenge they have introduced - network reference id.
It works in the same way as the PAR value and is 36-character long. The token create API call returns the Network Reference id.

Razorpay returns both **network reference id** as well as **PAR** value wherever available for RuPay Cards.

## Use cases

This API is helpful for card identification in various situations:

* Restricting the number of times an offer is availed on the card.
* Applying risk checks as to how many times a card is used or if it is associated with fraud users.
* Block existing and newly blacklisted cards.

## List of Endpoints

<Info>
  **Handy Tips**

  You can initiate a request for a card reference number using the following:

  * Card number
  * Tokenised card number
  * Razorpay token
</Info>

| API Endpoint                                                                                                            | Description                                                                        |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Fetch Card Reference Number Using Card Number](/docs/api/payments/cards/fingerprints/fetch-card-number)                | Fetches the card reference number for a specific card using card number.           |
| [Fetch Card Reference Number Using Tokenised Card Number](/docs/api/payments/cards/fingerprints/fetch-tokenised-number) | Fetches the card reference number for a specific card using tokenised card number. |
| [Fetch Card Reference Number Using Razorpay Token](/docs/api/payments/cards/fingerprints/fetch-razorpay-token)          | Fetches the card reference number for a specific card using Razorpay Token.        |

## Card Fingerprint Entity

`network`
: `string` The card network. Possible values:

* `Mastercard`
* `RuPay`
* `Visa`

`payment_account_reference`
: `string` The 29-character unique identifier for Mastercard and Visa cards. For RuPay cards, the value is `null`.

`network_reference_id`
: `string` The unique identifier generated for RuPay cards.

<CodeGroup>
  ```json Sample Entity theme={null}
  {
    "network": "Visa",
    "payment_account_reference": "V0010013819231376539033235990",
    "network_reference_id": null
  }
  ```
</CodeGroup>

`network`
: `string` The card network. Possible values:

* `Mastercard`
* `RuPay`
* `Visa`

`payment_account_reference`
: `string` The 29-character unique identifier for Mastercard and Visa cards. For RuPay cards, the value is `null`.

`network_reference_id`
: `string` The unique identifier generated for RuPay cards.