We can offer postal proofs with our full colour solid plastic cards orders (apart from the special offers). There are numerous reasons why we can offer them. Basically the cards when printed and finalized may come out differently than expected. Reasons include:

– Orders with magnetic strips can be tested to ensure they work ok before the full order is printed. Occasionally the proofing stage can highlight problems before the full order is printed.

– The above also applies for barcodes.

– Colours can come out differently then expected when the artwork is printed on to plastic cards.

– A printed proof may highlight any areas of the artwork which have been provided by the customer as proof quality/low resolution. The customer can then decide if they have the ability to provide the artwork in a better quality.
– Optional extras such as embossing can be applied to show the final result, sometimes embossing may cover key text which the customer has not realised previously.

The above are example but highlight the obvious reasons for producing postal proofs.

Most plastic cards companies, often those shipping the cards into the UK from the far East, do not offer postal proofs, I think this is basically because it would take far to long to ship a sample card with the customer artwork on to the UK. Please bear this in mind when ordering cards from a company who does not produce the cards in the UK. Imagine if your full order arrived and it looked terrible or the magnetic strips did not work, I doubt anything could be done.

However, it may not be obvious that some companies are not producing the cards in the UK, i.e. their sales office may be here in the UK, so you need to ask them if the cards are produced here in the UK or if they are shipped in from the far east etc.
Place your order with us and receive your postal proof before we print your full order. This is to ensure full review and testing of any optional extras can occur before you commit to your full order being printed.