It’s a warning any seasoned traveler has probably heard: Don’t carry your hotel key card in the same pocket as your cell phone or the card could get erased. Some travelers cautiously heed the advice, while others write it off as urban legend.
Even among card industry professionals, there are varying opinions on whether cell phones can actually erase or damage data from magnetic stripe cards. There is agreement, however, that there are other variables that will damage these cards.
CPI Card Group, a card manufacturer based in Littleton, Colo., believes it has evidence of the cell phone-mag stripe correlation. CPI manufacturers a mix of magnetic stripe cards, including payment cards as well as gift cards, hotel key cards and casino gaming cards. “A lot of the cards people tend to use in harsh way,” explains Julie Hermanson, quality control manager for CPI.
There are 1386 words in the rest of this article …
Library Access Required
Library subscribers have access to the full archives of more than 10,000 original news items and feature articles published by AVISIAN’s suite of ID technology publications (ContactlessNews.com, CR80News.com, DigitalIDNews.com, FIPS201.com, NFCNews.com, RFIDNews.org, SecureIDNews.com, and ThirdFactor.com).
For just $49, you receive unlimited password-protected access to content on all of AVISIAN’s sites for an entire year. Your subscription helps fund the continued creation of independent, insightful content. Find out more.
Sign in as a Subscriber
If you are already a subscriber, you may sign in now. Enter your Email Address and Password and click Sign In.
If you have forgotten your password, enter just your Email Address, and click Send Password.
This is a great topic. There has to be scientific published data that can put an end to the theses badge tech myths and professional guestimations. I know that a company like Magtek could respond with a high level of authority. And regarding the statement that mag stripe cards will be replaced in 5 years is far reaching and too vague. Regarding use for campus POS, time clocks and door access control; they (HiCo Mag stirpes) will be here for decades to come! Price and reliability are major strengths, not to mention a huge legacy installation base. Their usage per percentage of new installations will continue to decline over RFID (prox and contactess) usage, not to mention the uncertainty that NFC is going have on the payment and loyalty card (mag stripe) arena in the near future. Unless someone has a crystal ball that states otherwise!
Also, a true 4000 oersted encoded quality HiCo produced mag stripe card can not be erased without a very powerfully industrial electro-maget. This article needs to be carried on with some expert response. I am not an expert, just a sales person with 2.5 decades of industry experience.
Joe, I completely agree with you. The biggest issue I have seen regarding this myth is how easily it is perpetuated with no real evidence either way. I have yet to see a comprehensive report reaching a solid conclusion from either direction. I am convinced that it is topic often repeated, but that no one in the market really cares about because it doesn't affect the bottom line of most companies. I am fully willing to concede my opinion with any hard evidence from a third party testing company. I just know from my experience that erasure from cell phones or other cards seems to always be the first option assumed, even by folks knowing nothing about the technology. If you have access to any detailed reports that show extensive testing with a variety of card types, components and variables, I would love to read it. From my own searches, I typically find only "expert opinions" in blogs, but no concrete data.
I agree with Joe. Mag stripe cards are here to stay in the hotel industry. Retail cost are around 9¢ to 10¢ per card compared to 60¢ to 70¢ for RFID.Hotel owners would rather have people walk off with a dime not a 50¢ piece. There are other problems with these cards that I do not see metioned.Most of these systems work off a time and date stamp that is encoded on the card at the time of check in.The door locks are programmed to recognize the most current time and date. Most front desk encoders have a default of a 1 night stay that shows at the time the keys are being encoded. The front desk person has to enter the correct number of nights a person will be staying at the hotel or the cards will only be good for the whatever the default is set at (usually 1 night). So if I check into XYZ hotel on a Monday for 5 nights and the front desk encodes my key card and does not enter the correct night stay of 5 nights instead makes it for the default of 1 night.. I will be back at the front desk the next day complaining my key card does not work...or even better lets say I leave my key in my room and stop by the front desk to have another key made.The front desk person makes a new key and not a duplicate key once I use the new key in the door lock , the key I left in the room now is invalid and will not work...now I have in my possession a valid key and a invalid key. Most people would not know this is happening and would wrongly blame the key cards.
I saw this happen numerous time while working as a certified trainer for Ilco and Saflock in the mid and late 90's.
As a side note I should mention that a lot of these systems are reaching 15 to 20 years in age and need replacing not to mention that alot of hotels do not even know they need to clean their door locks readers and encoders at least once a month or more if they are a exterior property.
I could gone on and on about why a hotel key card may not be working and the reasons would have nothing to do with cell phones or other cards erasing the info on the mag stripe.