Club Membership Cards: A Guide for Clubs

What is a club membership card for?

It shows that someone has paid and belongs, so whoever checks it can act in a second. Who checks it decides what matters most on the card, so start there.

Our sports club membership cards page and club card gallery show what other clubs print. If yours isn’t listed, club cards are the same and only the wording changes.

What should a club membership card show?

The club name and badge, the member’s name and number, their category and the year. Those five go on the front of most club member cards. The back is for whatever the committee keeps explaining, such as guest rules and opening hours.

1. Club name and badge, so the card is clearly yours.
2. Category, in words as well as by colour.
3. Season. Write 2026/27, not 2026, if it crosses the new year.
4. Name, 10 to 14pt, with room for your longest name.
5. Number, 10pt or more, so it can be read in a second.
6. Signature strip. Takes an ordinary ballpoint.
7. Barcode, only if something scans it, with the number underneath.
8. Rules you’d otherwise keep repeating.
9. If found: where a lost card should go.

Both sides are printed in full colour at no extra cost. The design and anything printed with your order are sealed between bonded clear PVC sheets, so the print can’t scratch or wear off. Leave home addresses and dates of birth off, because a card can be lost. Our free membership card template has sample club wording to copy. For more, see what to put on a membership card, with wording you can copy, how to design a membership card, and portrait or landscape if cards will hang on a lanyard.

Can juniors, families and social members have different club cards?

Yes. Give each category its own card colour, and whoever checks the card can tell them apart at a glance. Colour versions cost nothing extra when they’re ordered as one job, so just tell us how many of each you need.

• Pick colours that are easy to tell apart, so the colour code still works if a shade varies from one order to the next. If a colour has to be right, add a postal proof.
• Print the word as well, we suggest, for poor light and for anyone who finds colours hard to tell apart. For more layouts, see our membership card design ideas.
• Life members and the committee can have a colour of their own, or metallic foiling on the badge, an optional extra that suits simple line art.

How does a club card show it’s current?

In one of three ways: the year on the card, a fixed expiry date on each card, or a write-on panel the secretary fills in at renewal. Choose before the first batch is printed, because it decides whether you need new cards every season.

Old and new cards will be around together. A new card colour each year lets a steward spot last year’s card without reading it. That uses colour for the year, so categories then need telling apart by the word on the card. If colour marks the category, print the year in large type instead.

How do you number members and add names?

Print them from a spreadsheet with the order, have the secretary fill in a write-on panel, or use our bureau service for people who join mid-season.

• Choose enough digits for every card you’ll ever issue: 0001, or a high start like 10001. In Excel, format the column as Text, or it loses leading zeros.
• Use a prefix if it helps, such as J-0427 for a junior or 26-0001 for a year.
• Members who keep their number need a list, not a start number, because a run simply counts on.

How do you check a club card at the door?

By eye, unless you have a scanner, so the year and category should be the first things anyone sees. Look at your proof the way a steward will: at arm’s length, in bad light, for about a second. There are four ways to add a check.

We can’t test a barcode, QR code or magnetic strip on your own system. If one has to work with your till or door reader, add a postal proof to your order and try real cards before the rest are printed.

How many cards should a club order, and what do they cost?

Count your paid-up members, add the joiners you expect this season, then add spares for lost cards. Our guide to how many cards to order suggests allowing 10 to 20% a year for lost and replaced cards. On a numbers-only run, the next card in the box goes to the next member, and a write-on panel can take the name. If names are printed, new joiners can go through our bureau service, from stock we hold.

Names and numbers are added on your quote. The price per card falls as the quantity goes up, because much of the work in an order is the same whatever the quantity.

Full colour on both sides, High Gloss, 86 x 54mm and 760 microns thick, from print-ready artwork. Prices exclude VAT and optional extras such as numbers, names and barcodes, which are priced on your quote.

Members who carry keys rather than a wallet can have a key tag, from £98.00 +vat for 25, or a combo card with a snap-off tag, from £224.00 +vat for 25. Neither can be embossed or have a magnetic strip.

When should a club order its cards?

Work back about three weeks from the date you need them. Standard production is 7 working days from proof approval and payment, and the rest of that time is for checking the proof. Express takes 3 to 4 working days: ask us for cost and availability.

• Renewing in December or January? Order in November, because December is our busiest month.
• Starting in August, like most football clubs? Get the proof approved in July.
• Renewing at the new year or in April, like many golf clubs? Have cards with members before the first competition.

How does a committee sign off the cards?

On the free email proof. Send it round the committee, then have one person approve it in writing. Nothing is printed until the proof is approved and the order is paid.

The proof shows where the names and numbers sit, so you can check the layout and wording. The colours on the proof are a guide only, because every screen shows colour differently. If a colour has to be right, add a postal proof to your order: it’s optional, £65 +vat, takes around 5 working days and is for full colour cards.

Our artwork check is technical: bleed, resolution, colour mode and file set-up. The wording is for you to check, so go through this list:

• Club name and badge are right and current
• The season or expiry date is the one you mean
• Each category’s word is on the right card design
• Rules and contact details are up to date
• Number format: zeros, prefixes and spaces as you want them
• The space for names is big enough for your longest name
• The barcode number is what your system expects

How do the cards reach members?

We deliver the order to you or to someone you name, and the club hands the cards out or posts them. Bureau cards can’t be posted to members.

• Choose an address where someone’s in. Orders go by courier and need a signature, and club premises can be locked, so many clubs use a committee member’s home. Delivery is free within Great Britain, and our delivery prices list the charges for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands.
• Hand them over as subs are paid, ticking each one off against your register.
• Posting them? A card carrier makes a welcome pack, with room for a welcome and the rules. Carriers and cards are supplied separately, so the club fixes the cards on.

What happens next season?

A reorder is mostly a date and a quantity. We’ve been supplying cards made in England since 1992, and we keep your artwork on file. Each order gets a free email proof, so the committee can check the new details. In your email, tell us:

• How many of each category you need this year.
• The new year and any new colours.
• The last number you issued, so the numbers carry on and no two cards share one.
• Your spreadsheet, laid out as last time.