What Is a Magnetic Stripe Card and Do You Still Need One?

Magnetic stripe is 60-year-old technology that still turns up on millions of cards every year. It is not sophisticated. It is reliable, cheap, and ubiquitous — and if your existing hardware expects it, there is no practical alternative short of replacing your readers.

Here is exactly what it is, what it stores, and whether you still need it.

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What a magnetic stripe actually is
The magnetic stripe — or magstripe — is a band of iron-based magnetic particles embedded in a resin layer on the back of a plastic card. Data is encoded by magnetising sections of this stripe in different orientations, creating a pattern that a card reader's read head interprets as binary data.

It is exactly the same basic technology as an old cassette tape, just applied to a flat surface.

What it stores
A standard three-track magnetic stripe (ISO 7811) stores data across three tracks:

Track 1: up to 79 alphanumeric characters — typically cardholder name and account number.

Track 2: up to 40 numeric characters — account number, expiry date, service code. The track most payment terminals read.

Track 3: up to 107 numeric characters — less standardised, used for proprietary data by some systems.

Where it is still used

- Hotel room key cards — the dominant format in most hotels worldwide
- Gift cards — many retail gift card systems still swipe at the till
- Loyalty cards — legacy POS systems with magnetic stripe readers
- Access control — door entry systems in offices, car parks, and gyms
- Public sector ID cards — some government-issued cards still carry magstripe
- Library cards, leisure centre cards, membership cards

Do you still need one?
That depends entirely on your existing hardware. If you have card swipe readers at your tills, access control panels, or hotel door locks that are designed for magnetic stripe, then yes — you need magnetic stripe cards.

If you are building a new system from scratch, you have a choice. NFC/RFID and QR/barcode systems are increasingly common and in some cases more practical. But if your equipment reads magnetic stripe, replacing the cards with QR codes will not work — you need to change the readers too, which is a much bigger investment.

The answer is almost never a technology preference — it is a question of what your hardware expects.

Vulnerabilities
Magnetic stripe data is easy to copy (skim). This is why it was replaced by chip-and-PIN for payment cards. For non-payment applications like hotel keys and loyalty cards, skimming is generally not a meaningful concern since the data on the card is not directly monetisable without access to the back-end system.

Magstripes can be demagnetised by proximity to strong magnets — phone cases with magnets, magnetic clasps on bags, and so on. This is the most common reason hotel key cards stop working.

Ready to order?
We supply magnetic stripe cards in both HiCo and LoCo, printed in England with free UK delivery. If you know what you need, get a quote and we will turn around a proof quickly. Not sure which spec suits your system? Get in touch and we will help you work it out.

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