[ahallock]

I think it's one of those things where convenience for those looking at the underlying data has bled over into the UI. While you can deduce the type from the number, it's not easy for humans to do that at glance while looking over SQL query results. I could be wrong, but often, we ask users for more input than we need to because elegant UIs take lots of work.

[ii]

Is it really hard for anyone in 2014 to get the type of a card from the first 2 digits of a card number and add a field to an INSERT query?

[ahallock]

It's not difficult, but quite a few developers I've worked with were unaware of that algorithm, which is one reason I think they pushed it into the UI.

[ii]

All developers I know of, including myself, do have this unawareness of simple things, but I prefer to call it for what it is: simple human laziness.