Magnetic Card Reader

If any adult were to open their wallet or handbag, it's pretty much a given that either would contain a large variety of magnetic cards. In fact, one may be tempted to feel that we live our lives through the magic of the magnetic stripe.

Debit cards, credit cards, identification cards and driver's licenses all seem to have magnetic stripes on the back. Magnetic cards (and their stripes!) store information such as outstanding balances and other commercial account details. These magnetic stripes are also relied upon for completely accurate identification of the card holder.

In order to access the information stored in the magnetic stripe, a magnetic card reader is required. The magnetic card is then dragged through or swiped through the slot in the reader. Information, which is stored on three separate tracks, is numeric-only on the second and third tracks.

Today's magnetic card readers are generally very small. They can be mounted onto a computer keyboard, without impacting its use, or they can even be hand-held. Card readers are a necessity in virtually every retail business, restaurant or bar. They are also present where proprietary vendor cards are used such as at trade shows or in kiosks and vending machines.

Magtek, for example, offers a highly affordable Mini-Mag Magnetic Swipe Card Reader. It is a USB powered, point of sale magnetic card reader, meaning that no external power supply is ever required, or it uses a Keyboard Wedge Port interface. This little marvel can handle up to a million swipes of magnetic cards.

Sometimes, a magnetic card reader is not all that is required and, instead, a magnetic card reader and writer must be called into service. These devices, like BC Data's Magnetic Stripe Card Reader/Writer MSR33HL, have the ability to both decode and encode magnetic stripe card data on items such as student identification cards, employee badges, access control cards and more.

Magnetic cards can make everyday life much more efficient. They can speed up the lines at transit stations, allow people to process their bank transactions quickly at ATM's and even handle their own sales transactions without the need for sales clerk. All it takes is the swipe of the right stripe through a magnetic card reader.

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