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Magnetic stripe card facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
EC-Card Oldenburgische Landesbank (back)
Backside of a bank card with a magnetic stripe

A Magnetic stripe card is a plastic card which has a magnetic stripe on it. Different kinds of information can be stored on the magnetic stripe. Such stripes are usually made of small particles of iron (or another metal). Information is stored by changing the magnetism of the particles, as with magnetic tape Today such cards are widely used for:

There are different ways in which the data is stored on the card. But all of them are read in much the same way, by "swiping" (sliding the card through a slot) on a machine called a reader. These readers can be separate from or built into other machines such as a payment terminal in a cash register or point of sale system.

Similar cards, which can also do calculations themselves, are called smart cards.

Details

The standard ISO 7811 specifies the format in which information is stored on these cards. A magnetic stripe holds about 1024 bits of information, which is arranged in three tracks. The first track holds 76 alphanumeric characters, encoded in 7 bit per character. The two other tracks hold 37 and 104 numeric characters, encoded with 5 bits per character. The first two tracks can only be read, the third track can also be written to.

Cards that are used for banking used to store the PIN as a hash value on the magnetic stripe. Today, the ATM calculates the hash value, and transmits it to the server of the bank, which does the comparison. Storing the PIN in the ATM is no longer allowed.

In many payment cards around the world, magnetic stripes are being replaced with a more secure technology called EMV. Most of these cards, though, still have magnetic stripes to be used in places which do not yet work with EMV.

Images for kids

  • Aufnahme der magnetischen Struktur eines Magnetstreifens auf eine EC-Karte (Aufnahme mit CMOS-MagView)2

    Visualization of magnetically stored information on a magnetic stripe card (recorded with CMOS-MagView, dark colors correspond to magnetic north, light colors correspond to magnetic south)

  • Magnetic stripe prototype

    The first prototype of magnetic stripe card created by IBM in the late 1960s. A stripe of cellophane magnetic tape is fixed to a piece of cardboard with clear adhesive tape

  • 2. Front of first mag striped encoded plastic card

    Front side of the first magnetic stripe plastic credit card. Note that the narrow magnetic stripe is on the front of the card. It was later switched to the back side.

  • 3. Back of first mag striped encoded plastic card

    Back side of the first magnetic stripe plastic credit card

  • 5. Back of first mag striped encoded paper card

    Back of early magnetic striped encoded paper card. The narrow magnetic stripe in the center of the card was applied using a magnetic slurry paint.

  • Example of Magnetic stripe card used for vending with slots cut in it

    Example of a card from the late 1980s used in food vending machines in the UK

  • Aufnahme der magnetischen Struktur eines Magnetstreifens auf eine EC-Karte (Aufnahme mit CMOS-MagView)

    Detailed visualization of magnetically stored information on a magnetic stripe card (recorded with CMOS-MagView, dark colors correspond to magnetic north, light colors correspond to magnetic south).

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Tarjeta de banda magnética para niños

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