CVN Locations and Terminology

For Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Diners Club, UnionPay, and JCB, the CVN is a three-digit number printed on the back of the card, to the right of the signature field. For American Express, the CVN is a four-digit number printed on the front of the card, above and to the right of the card number.
Each payment card company has its own name for this value:
  • American Express and Discover call it the Card Identification Number (CID).
  • JCB calls it the Card Authentication Value (CAV2).
  • Mastercard calls it the Card Validation Code (CVC2).
  • UnionPay calls it the Card Validation Number (CVN2).
  • Visa calls it the Card Verification Value (CVV2).