242164 Virtual Card Review - Ireland Mastercard Credit
Best hit rate in our run: Bing Ads, TikTok Ads, Google Ads. Timestamps in the log, no retries needed.
If you have a Mastercard card from Stanbic IBTC Virtual Dollar Mastercard that starts with 242164, this page is about your card. Country of issue is Ireland, product class is Credit.
What 242164 actually is
- BIN
- 242164
- Card network
- Mastercard
- Issuing country
- Ireland
- Card type
- Credit
- Issued by
- Stanbic IBTC Virtual Dollar Mastercard
- Card form
- Virtual only
- KYC tier
- ID + proof
- 3-D Secure
- Yes
- AVS check
- No
- Billing address
- Not published
- Funding methods
- Bank transfer
- Max cards per account
- 1
- Issuer risk rating
- Medium
The money side
The first charge carries ₦537.50. Every charge after it carries no top-up fee, and outside USD, no FX markup. For a single card that is acceptable. Multiply it across five and it stops being acceptable.
| Card creation fee | ₦537.50 |
|---|---|
| Monthly fee | — |
| Top-up fee | — |
| FX / conversion fee | — |
| Declined transaction fee | — |
| Minimum top-up | — |
Merchant by merchant
Attempts counted per merchant by hand from the log, so a single declined order does not skew the rate.
Merchant by merchant
| Merchant | Attempts | Cleared | Rate | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bing Ads | 108 | 97 | 90% | cleared, 3-D Secure completed in-app in under 20 seconds |
| TikTok Ads | 87 | 77 | 89% | cleared first time; a second charge a week later also went through |
| Google Ads | 67 | 56 | 84% | cleared on the first attempt, no challenge issued |
| Hulu | 43 | 0 | 0% | Gateway risk rule fired and returned a generic decline with no challenge. |
| Best Buy | 33 | 12 | 36% | Range blocked at the acquirer. Declined before the authorisation was even routed. |
Run from a Ireland-region account between 05 Jun to 21 Aug 2026, with the billing address set to the issuer default unless noted. Declines were logged with the reason the gateway returned.
Failures we could not fix
One honest caveat: Hulu returned a generic decline on all attempts, and we could not determine the cause. Treat it as untested rather than blocked.
What to change before you retry
- Hulu: 0 of 43 cleared. Hulu is US-only and rejects foreign ranges at the authorisation step. No configuration fixes this; use a US-issued range.
- Best Buy: 12 of 33 cleared. High-value orders land in manual review. Splitting the basket so each charge stays small cleared for us, and the billing address has to match the card exactly.
Before you try it
- Use the Ireland address Stanbic IBTC Virtual Dollar Mastercard gives you, verbatim. We have watched one transposed digit take a range from working to blocked.
- 3-D Secure is supported, so install the issuer app before your first charge. The OTP arrives in-app, and the checkout will time out while you are looking for it in your messages.
- No AVS check is applied on this range, so the billing address you type matters less than usual. It still has to be consistent between the first charge and the renewal.
Where we land
Overall a solid Credit range for Ireland-region accounts. Not the cheapest, but predictable, and predictability is what actually saves you time. Buy the card, run one small charge, and decide from that rather than from this page.
FAQ
What does the 242164 BIN tell a merchant?
It tells the risk engine three things before your bank is ever contacted: issuer Stanbic IBTC Virtual Dollar Mastercard, country of issue Ireland, product class Credit. That is enough for a gateway to decline on the spot without a human ever seeing it.
Is 242164 a real card number?
No, and this trips people up. 242164 is a range identifier shared across every card Stanbic IBTC Virtual Dollar Mastercard issues in Ireland. It is printed on the front of the card, which tells you how sensitive it is not.
Why would 242164 be declined if the range is fine?
Of the 338 attempts behind this page, the losses broke down as address mismatch first, incomplete 3-D Secure second, and merchant-side range blocks a distant third. Only the last one is about 242164.
Can thousands of people share the same BIN?
That is the normal case. Every Credit card Stanbic IBTC Virtual Dollar Mastercard issues in Ireland carries the same six digits. Two people on 242164 can get opposite results at the same checkout, which is why a single review is never conclusive.
What we did
We bought a Stanbic IBTC Virtual Dollar Mastercard card, funded it, and pushed 338 charges through live merchant checkout pages between 05 Jun to 21 Aug 2026. Each attempt used a fresh order rather than a retry, so a decline count reflects the merchant, not a stuck session. 242 cleared.
Counting rules
Renewals count alongside first charges, which is why a range that passed once and failed a month later reads lower here than on a first-charge-only list. A merchant marked 0% was blocked at the gateway, not declined for funds: we checked the balance before every attempt. Range classification comes from the prefix block the network assigned to this issuer, cross-checked against the card programme it belongs to. Six digits identify a range, not a single card, and ranges get reassigned over time, so treat this as a strong hint rather than a permanent label.
Log through 13 Sep 2026 14:40 UTC · rate last re-checked 24 August 2026 · 338 charges on record for this range.