Hello everyone. Here is my final blog (part three) surrounding magnetic strips and the disadvantages of them, specifically considering the use of them with membership cards and loyalty cards:

The magnetic strips must be in close proximity to the reader to allow it to be read.

If the magnetic strip is placed near to a magnetic field the encoded data can be damaged.

Some people  may consider that as the magnetic strips does not have a human readable element that this may be a disadvantage (please note however with our cards, if we are encoding them for you we can print information on the other side of the cards for you, for example if you want a membership number encoded we can then include a member name on the other side, this can be embossed for a professional image is achieved – just pop the require information in an excel file and we will work directly form this)

At the moment this is al I can come up with any more disadvantages! I am sure there are some more, so as always if you have any let me know and I will update the list!

Some plastic card examples

Hello All,

I mentioned earlier in the week about a rush order for plastic cards for a car company . Well I have pleasure in announcing that we have managed to produce their plastic cards one day quicker than expected and the order should be delivered tomorrow.

We are obviously reliant on the courier company playing there part but all going well the customer should have plenty of time to transport the cards abroad for the motor show.

It’s always nice when we are able to help customers, sometimes the plastic cards can make or break deals for people, especially if they relate to a membership schemes and need to be given to new members at an open day or event (sorry I am waffling a little as the cards for the car company were not actually a membership card!).

Anyhow I just though I would let you know that this order has been despatched with time to spare and that if you need plastic cards in a hurry it may well be possible, please just ask & we will see what we can do for you.

Bye for now.

Some plastic card examples

Last week I wrote a blog saying that a Chinese plastic card printing company had stolen images from our website to include on theirs.

We get this a lot from new companies in the industry that are either lazy or don’t have the ability to take their own photographs of plastic cards for their website.

Anyway, after repeatedly harassing/nagging the Chinese plastic card company, they have finally removed my images from their website.

However, they have not apologised!

I will continue to keep my eye on them as well as other new companies to ensure my images remain solely on my website.

Some plastic card examples

Here is my second blog on the subject of magnetic strips and specifically the advantages of using them:

Magnetic strips are a well established and well used method of member identification hence there is a lot of information and support available

Due to the availability of products the cost of magnetic strip equipment is relatively cost effective

The data encoded onto the magnetic strip can be rewritten or modified (subject to you having the required equipment to do this)

Magnetic strips are not easily damaged with water or dirt.

The magnetic strips we produce are part of the plastic card and hence do not come off or away from the cards.

There are probably many more advantages but I just wanted to point out some of the mains ones. Hopefully this will be useful if you are considering the implementation of magnetic strips for a loyalty card or membership card. We can obviously incorporate magnetic strips on to any type of card for example some customer like to make their business cards look like credit cards.

Some plastic card examples

A potential customer contacted us yesterday (Tuesday) as they had been let down by another printing company for their membership cards. I don’t want to mention the other companies name as it seems a little unfair however they are a large plastic card company. They desperately needed some cards for Saturday. Looking at the artwork the plastic cards are to be used at a motor show on the 5th March. The motor show is overseas so obviously some time needs to be built into the production to enable transportation by the customer to the overseas show.

I spoke to our production manager and she agreed that we would be ok to despatch the order of 1000 x plastic cards (760 microns thick with no optional extras) on Friday for delivery on Saturday. The Saturday delivery incurred an extra charge from our courier company but the customer was happy to pay this.

The order does have a very tight deadline of 3 working days however we felt that this is manageable. We would not accept an order if we felt we could not achieve the deadline.

The customer was genuinely appreciative of our help which is nice as our efforts often go with out any thanks.

If you are reading this Donna, thank you for your appreciation, it does mean a lot to us.

I will have my fingers crossed that everything runs smoothly with your order & that the motor show is a success for your company. Thank you again.

Some plastic card examples

This is the start of three blogs surrounding the topic of magnetic strips on plastic cards. The proposed blog topics are:

What are magnetic strips
The advantages of magnetic strips
The disadvantages of magnetic strips

So, here is the first topic – what are magnetic strips:

To start of I think it is important to mention that we offer one product with magnetic strips, this is the full colour solid plastic 760 micron card. Magnetic strips are often used for loyalty and membership schemes and often as business cards to make them look similar to a credit card.

Magnetic strips are usually positioned on the reverse of a plastic cards at the top (there are a few pictures/photos on our website should you wish to view a visual of this).

Magnetic strips are placed on the plastic cards in the form of magnetic tape. There are two different types of magnetic strip tape which we use, they are called High Coercivity (HICO)  or Low Coercivity (LOCO). The Coercivity defines how strong the magnetic field is and how immune the data on the magnetic strip is to damage. This is quite a technical area so I will not dwell on it any further. Most of our customer tend to use a LOCO magnetic strip but if in doubt please check with the company who provided your magnetic strip reader. As a very very rough guide HICO magnetic strips are often black in colour where LOCO ones are brown, please be wary though as this is not always the case. Some magnetic strip readers can read both HICO & LOCO magnetic strips but again if unsure please check with your provider.

The magnetic strip itself has three tracks or lines within it. These tracks are used to record data otherwise known as encoding data. The different tracks can hold different information, this again depends on customer requirements but as a general rule:

Track 1: Alpha numeric (letters & numbers) max characters: 78
Track 2: Numeric max characters: 37
Track 3: Numeric max characters: 103

We can encode on to just one track or multiple tracks if required. Again, If in doubt, as usual, please check with your provider.

We can produce magnetic strips which are encoded or not encoded. The choice is down to individual customers needs. For example some customers ask us to encode a sequential number and they link this number to new members when they join. Other customer have the ability to encode the magnetic strips themselves. Just let us know what you require.

As with any data recoding system you will need a reader (magnetic strip reader in this case) and software to compliment it.

There are vast amounts of information surrounding magnetic strips available on the internet. however I hope that the above provide a basic overview.

As a bit of guidance and summary to this blog, I have put together a few questions regarding magnetic strips, these may be useful to ask customers if you are looking to supply magnetic strip cards / loyalty cards / membership cards for the first time:

1) Do you require a HICO or LOCO magnetic strips?

2) Do you require the magnetic strips to be encoded?

3) If encoding is required, please clarify which track the encoding needs to be on and whether any prefixes are required for your machinery to read/see the magnetic strip.

Hope the above is useful for you.

Some plastic card examples

Its been a busy day again for plastic card enquiries.

An amusing incident happened earlier today. We had a customer phone us earlier chasing delivery of their plastic cards, they did not seem to be able to locate their order number (we provide order numbers to all customer so that we can easily monitor their card order). I then asked for the invoice number however this did not seem to be one of our invoice numbers.

I then asked the company name on the invoice and it turned out they had ordered the plastic cards from elsewhere – much to this persons embarrassment!

This customer had received a quote from us however our price was a little more than another company, so they went with this other company. Speaking to this person a little longer on the phone revealed that they will be ordering the plastic cards from us next time due to failed promises from this other company, there were expecting delivery of their order today however it unfortunatley does not look like this will happen and they will not have their plastic cards for an important event tomorrow.

Please remember that, as with most things in life,  you get what you pay for & if something seems too good to be true it probably is!

Colour Plastic Cards offer a honest yet quality service and product.

Some plastic card examples

Here we go, a little list of some disadvantages for using barcodes:

Scratched barcodes can cause problems scanning (our barcodes are positioned under plastic so them becoming scratched off is not possible)

Although the cost and time of setting up a barcode system is relatively low, some money & time output is still required. One option would be to charge customer a little for a membership card or build the cost into the membership fee. It may also be an option to charge customer for replacement cards should they be lost. I would try to steer away for charging a small fortune for replacement card as this may annoy members and cause tension.

A little time and accuracy needs to be taken when inputting a new member into the system to enable accurate recording and reporting. What is that saying? ……rubbish in = rubbish out!

The software system will need to be maintained and managed to get the optimum results – not necessarily a disadvantage but be prepared to utilize your system as much as you can, you should be getting more out of it than you put in.

The Durability of the actual barcode scanners can be an issue – just make sure you research your options carefully and select a scanner which is fit for purpose.

A general point which applies to all computer systems (not just barcodes)…MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP YOUR DATA! Please don’t waste your time installing an all singing all dancing system and forget to back up. Imagine how you would feel should all your valuable data go up in smoke – not very amused!

Please remember that the above disadvantages should be out weighed by the advantages, provided the system is maintained properly and any investment should be repaid within a matter of months.

Any comments are welcomes, if you would like to add any other disadvantages to this list please let us know.

Bye for now.

Some plastic card examples

Here is my second blog in relation to barcodes, this blog is specifically considering the advantages of using barcodes for loyalty and membership cards / schemes. I have just put together a list of advantages and tried to keep them to the concise and to the point:

The barcode hardware is relatively cost effective and hence business friendly in the current economic climate
There are numerous software packages available, you will be hard pressed not to find one which meets your needs.

Barcodes provide accurate identification of members as well as other information (mentioned in a previous blog in more details).

It takes very little time to scan a barcode hence saving time in the long run.
Possibly less chance of failure than other scanning/swiping methods as magnetic charges are not able to disable the actual barcode on the cards.
Our barcodes are positioned behind a plastic laminate e.g. within the plastic card,  which means that will not come off/become scratched over time.

They are easy to identify on the plastic cards for the staff member to scan.
Barcodes are a relatively  easy concept to understand and use.

Its quite easy to set up a barcode scanning system to help streamline a business or loyalty/membership scheme.

Barcode scanners can be portable enabling ease of use -you can take the scanner to the card rather then the other way around – very useful for membership schemes.

Hope these advantages help a little, if anyone has any other advantages please feel free to let us know and any relevant ones will be added to our list.

The final topic on barcodes  - any disadvantages will be posted soon.

Bye for now.

Some plastic card examples

As promised here is my  first blog in relation to barcodes. I will hopefully post three blogs in total regarding barcodes, the first explaining what they are, the second on the advantages and second any disadvantages.

We can offer barcodes on the following products:

Full colour solid plastic cards (760, 680 and 420 microns in thickness) measure 86mm x 54mm
Full colour solid plastic key cards measuring 24 x 54mm

Barcodes are often used for membership and loyalty schemes and help organization’s record important data regarding customers.

Now on to a little more technical information. Barcodes are made up of parallel lines, the barcode is made up of different numbers and/or letters (this is depicted by the customer but generally is a number, the number can be sequential or provided in an excel file from the customer). Please note that other variations of barcodes (such as barcodes hidden within illustrations) do exist however for loyalty cards and membership cards we have found parallel lines to be the most effective and easy to use hence this is the option we offer.

Barcodes are scanned and read by optical scanners otherwise knows as barcode readers, the lines on the cards contain data which a machine can read. The barcode scanner can be handheld or it can be built into a counter like at a supermarket. A software package will usually be present which enables the scanned information/data to be sent to a computer. If for example the barcode is a number, this can be linked to a customer and bring up customers information when it is scanned or it could be a system where points are added each time it is used. The uses of barcodes are vast – too many to mention right now.

Barcodes can be placed on our plastic cards in any location and any size. Please bear in mind not to make the area for the barcode too small as your scanner may have trouble recognizing a very small barcode. Quite often we have found that a white box around the barcode area helps the scanner to identify it as a barcode. Obviously we produce postal proofs for any plastic cards ordered with a barcode, this enables you to test the barcode before we print your full order. We like to ensure our customers have peace of mind.

There are a number of different barcodes types/standards in use, examples include code39, code128A, EAN2, EAN5, CPC Binary,  Telepen & MSI. Some of these barcode types are used for multiple products/organisations others are specific to certain industries or users. For example CPC Binary is used by the post office and Telepen is often used by Libraries. Here at Colour Plastic Cards we produce a number of barcode standards/types (list to follow).

I believe that most barcode scanners can read and scan a variety of standards/barcode types. However as already mentioned we do produce a postal proof (actual finished card) with barcode for testing before we print your full order. If in any doubt please check with the provider of your barcode scanner for the barcode standard you require and any technical information such as optimal size etc.

I hope the information above provides a basic understanding of barcodes and is of a little assistance to you. This blog will be followed by the advantages and disadvantages of barcodes.

Some plastic card examples