Magnetic stripes on credit cards
How many times have you had your credit card declined at a restaurant or a store even when you knew you had enough money on that account? I’ve had my credit card declined at least twice last year, when at that very moment I knew I’d enough money on my account. To add to the embarrassment, I wasn’t carrying cash in those cases. Later on, after visiting my bank, I found out that the magnetic stripe on the back of my credit card had been demagnetized because of being either rubbed against or exposed to the texture of my wallet constantly.
In contrast, the magnetic stripes on the back of any government issued id cards always work. You can’t demagnetize them easily. They’ll work after any weather and after any kind of everyday exposure. Why can’t the banks issue credit cards that act normally like the government issued id cards? That would be a huge plus, and we wouldn’t have to worry about the magnetic stripes being exposed for too long to the sun or to our wallets.
For now, I have to put different paper cards between my wallet and any cards I have that have a magnetic stripe. The wallet has been getting fat slowly. Maybe I need a new wallet, or a new solution.
[Update]
1/11/2006 01:29 pm - Chau told me in the comments below that the magnetic strips in government issued cards don’t always work.
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( January 11th, 2006 at 10:44 am )
Actually, the magnetic strips on government issued cards sometimes doesn’t work either…
( January 11th, 2006 at 1:29 pm )
Oh, I didn’t know that
. I thought they worked all the time from personal experience and from hearing from other people. Thanks for sharing. 
I guess we need completely new kinds of magnetic stripes then, hmmmm.
( January 11th, 2006 at 6:02 pm )
( January 11th, 2006 at 8:27 pm )
This seems to be more of a problem for men than women from what I’ve seen. I’ve yet to have a problem with any of mine but you should see Steve’s… whoa. He had one card that was recently replaced that got so bad it finally broke in half. He always had to go in gas stations with it and have them do the old way of charging credit cards.
( January 13th, 2006 at 2:24 am )
Own personal bank — > Sure, I can send it via Fedex. Even better; let me know your bank account number and I will deposit the cash directly into your account.
Valerie — > I think it’s because a wallet goes into the pockets in shirts or normal pant pockets or the back pocket, and thus the wallet is pressed against a lot. That results in some of the things inside the wallet moving from time to time, which means that the magnetic stripe rubs against the interior of the wallet and gets demagnetized.
Wow, I can only imagine about the card that broke in half. I’ve had a few cards of different sorts that were in really bad condition, but that happened because of usage also.
Many places these days don’t know how to do the old way of charging cards [both typing them in manually or swiping them against a paper to save an imprint of the credit card, if that's what you're referring to], like at bookstores or many restaurants. I think carrying some cash all the time is a good idea. If there were no ATM fees, I’m sure people would use any nearby ATM to get cash, instead of looking far away for their personal bank atm.
( January 13th, 2006 at 8:05 pm )
I thought technology was supposed to make life simpler… hehehe
( January 15th, 2006 at 10:59 am )
heh, yes Sawai. It was supposed to make life easier. In reality, life got more complicated in the process itself; the results are achieved much easier than before, but the process has made us indulge in much more complicated things.