Magnetic Strip ID Cards

In addition to the common credit card, magnetic strip card use has rapidly spread to a multitude of needs, including student IDs, retail loyalty and discount cards, copy machine user ID cards, vending machine debit cards, etc.

Magnetic strip cards feature a thin magnetic stripe, typically found on the back of credit cards and identification badges. This magnet acts as a recorder, absorbing and maintaining any type of information. The information on the card is encoded and can’t be read until it is activated by swiping the card through a credit card terminal or PC.

If you have a need to implement a more robust system incorporating magnetic readers into your business, please contact us so that we can assist you in your endeavors. We may not be able to handle your needs but since we are in the industry we can at least help point you in the right direction.

From Wikipedia:

In most magnetic stripe cards, the magnetic stripe is contained in a plastic-like film. The magnetic stripe is located 0.223 inches (5.66 mm) from the edge of the card, and is 0.375 inches (9.52 mm) wide. The magnetic stripe contains three tracks, each 0.110 inches (2.79 mm) wide. Tracks one and three are typically recorded at 210 bits per inch (8.27 bits per mm), while track two typically has a recording density of 75 bits per inch (2.95 bits per mm). Each track can either contain 7-bit alphanumeric characters, or 5-bit numeric characters.

Magstripes come in two varieties: high-coercivity (HiCo) and low-coercivity (LoCo). High-coercivity magstripes are harder to erase, and therefore are appropriate for cards that are frequently used or that need to have a long life. Low-coercivity magstripes require a lower amount of magnetic energy to record, and hence the card writers are much cheaper than machines which are capable of recording high-coercivity magstripes. A card reader can read either type of magstripe, and a high-coercivity card writer may write both high and low-coercivity cards (most have two settings, but writing a LoCo card in HiCo mode will still work), while a low-coercivity card writer may write only low-coercivity cards.

Magnetic stripe cards are used in very high volumes in the mass transit sector, replacing paper based tickets with either a directly applied magnetic slurry or hot foil stripe. Slurry applied stripes are generally less expensive to produce but are perceived to be of lower quality. These cards typically would not comply with the standards for payment and other cards mentioned elsewhere in this article.

As our common resource we rely on the HiCo magstripe cards and use them whenever you request a card with a magstripe.  Many of our customers encode their own cards; however, your system and database can be set up to capture the information you want encoded on your ID cards.  If you use the LoCo ID cards, please contact us so that we can set up a process specifically for your order.

How are cards encoded?

From Wikipedia:

The information on track one on financial cards is contained in several formats: A, which is reserved for proprietary use of the card issuer, B, which is described below, C-M, which are reserved for use by ANSI Subcommittee X3B10 and N-Z, which are available for use by individual card issuers:

Track one, Format B:

• Start sentinel — one character (generally '%')
• Format code="B" — one character (alpha only)
• Primary account number — up to 19 characters
• Field Separator — one character (generally '^')
• Name — two to 26 characters
• Field Separator — one character (generally '^')
• Expiration date — four characters
• Service code — three characters
• Discretionary data — may include Pin Verification Key Indicator (PVKI, 1 character), Pin Verification Value (PVV, 4 characters), Card Verification Value or Card Verification Code (CVV or CVK, 3 characters)
• End sentinel — one character (generally '?')
• Longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) — one character

LRC is a form of computed check character.

The format for track two, developed by the banking industry (ABA), is as follows:

• Start sentinel — one character (generally ';')
• Primary account number — up to 19 chars
• Separator — one char (generally '=')
• Expiration date — four characters
• Service code — three characters
• Discretionary data — as in track one
• End sentinel — one character (generally '?')
• LRC — one character

The format for track three, as specified in ISO 4909 is as follows:

• Start sentinel — one character (generally ';')
• Format code — two characters (numeric) See description below
• Primary account number — up to 19 characters
• Field Separator — one character (generally '=')
• Country code optional, 3 characters
• Currency code 3 characters
• Currency Exponent 1 characters
• Amount Authorized per Cycle 4 characters
• Amount remaining this cycle 4 characters
• cycle begin (validity date) 4 characters
• cycle length 2 characters
• retry count 1 character
• Pin control parameters (optional) 6 characters
• Interchange controls 1 characters
• PAN Service restriction 2 characters
• SAN-1 Service Restriction 2 characters
• SAN-2 Service Restriction 2 characters
• Expiration date (optional) 4 characters
• Card Sequence number 1 character
• Card Security Number optional, 9 characters
• First subsidiary account number optional
• Secondary subsidiary account number optional
• Relay Marker 1 character
• Cryptographic Check Digits optional, 6 characters
• Discretionary Data
• End sentinel — one character (generally '?')
• Longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) — one character

Format codes are (field 2):

• 00: Not valid for international interchange.
• 01-02: Bank/financial. These are the formats described here.
• 03-19: Reserved for future use by ISO/TC 68.
• 20-89: Reserved for future use by ISO/TC 95 SC 17.
• 90-99: Reserved for proprietary use of card issuer, but not for international interchange.