Service establishment (SE) numbers are used in certain chargeback management processes. This article explains what SE numbers are and how they are used.
Note
If you do not accept American Express® or Discover® transactions, this information is not relevant to your business.
SE numbers are assigned by American Express and Discover when your merchant account is approved. These unique identifiers are applied to each establishment (the corporation associated with each merchant ID). An SE number indicates that a merchant ID is configured to accept American Express or Discover.
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American Express SE numbers are nine or ten digits long.
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Discover SE numbers are 15 digits long and start with the number 6. They often resemble a Discover credit card number.
SE numbers play an important role in the functionality of prevention alerts.
Prevention alerts are a popular tool used to reduce the risk of chargebacks. These technologies notify you if a transaction has been disputed. If you refund the disputed transaction within the given time period, the case is typically considered resolved without the need for a chargeback.
To notify you of these disputes, the alert technology must connect the transaction to the business that processed it. Mastercard® and Visa® use your billing descriptor to make this match. American Express and Discover use SE numbers.
If you want to receive prevention alerts for American Express and Discover, you must use your SE number for enrollment. We recommend including American Express and Discover in your alert coverage; the more complete your protection, the more chargebacks you can prevent.
Before you can enroll in prevention alerts for American Express, you must process at least one successful American Express transaction on your merchant account.
If you do not have any processing history, the merchant account cannot be approved by the alert vendors. Enrollment is contingent on account activity within the past 90 days.
There are a few different places you can look for your SE numbers:
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VAR sheet: The most common place to look for your SE number is your Value Added Reseller (VAR) sheet. When your merchant account was approved, you received a VAR sheet containing important account details.
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Support team: You can reach out to your processor’s support team directly to request the number.
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POS terminal: If you process card-present transactions, your SE number might be printed on a sticker on your point-of-sale (POS) terminal.
Note
If your business participates in the American Express OptBlue program, you might not have a traditional SE number. Instead, your processor assigns a unique internal number to process American Express payments. Check with your processor to confirm.
To enroll in Discover alerts, share the following information with the Identity & Fraud Services support team:
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Your Discover SE number
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The "doing business as" (DBA) name that you registered with Discover
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Your organization’s legal name (for example, your LLC or corporate name)
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Your corporation’s legal address
To enroll in American Express alerts, share the following information with our team:
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Your American Express SE number
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The "doing business as" (DBA) name that you registered with American Express
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Your organization’s legal name (for example, your LLC or corporate name)
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Your corporation’s legal address
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