What Can Ruin The Magnetic Strip?

focus888

I know if you allow your card to become close to a strong magnet the magnetic strip on your card will become deactivated making your card useless but what constitute a strong magnet?

Sorry if this is in the wrong area.

callum9999

Anything with a strong magnetic charge?

The magnetic strip isn't really that relevant now chip and pin is the norm though isn't it?

focus888

I honestly dont have a clue, but a friend told me her card was left on her laptop and the chip was ruined from it. is possible or could something else have done it?

LBG_worker

The mag strip is commonly used in cash machines abroad - it is used as a back up in the event of chip failure in the uk or for those who are blind / partially sighted and cannot enter a pin. It is not possible that a chip could be ruined simply from sitting on a laptop however if the chip gathers dirt dust etc this will damage the chip.

bert&ernie

LBG_worker wrote: »

The mag strip is commonly used in cash machines abroad - it is used as a back up in the event of chip failure in the uk or for those who are blind / partially sighted and cannot enter a pin. It is not possible that a chip could be ruined simply from sitting on a laptop however if the chip gathers dirt dust etc this will damage the chip.

'Chip and Signature' cards, as they are known, still use the EMV chip on-board the card - the difference is that they don't use PIN entry as a Card-holder Verification Method.

I agree that its highly unlikely that you could damage the chip itself with common household electromagnetic devices. You are more likely to damage the contacts through accidental physical damage or general wear and tear.

Jemma-T

focus888 wrote:

What Can Ruin The Magnetic Strip?.

Other magnets or anything that uses magnetic reading/writing to operate.

Eric_Pisch

Jemma-T wrote: »

Other magnets or anything that uses magnetic reading/writing to operate.

About 10 years ago we where selling the IT back end onto EPOS machines so had some card readers to play with and programme cards for testing.

We actually tried to wipe some cards by rubbing magnets over them and found it pretty hard to do. We also tried wiping floppy drives.

Wear and tear seams to do it for me on my older cards.

LoopyPrune

As a bloke who keeps his wallet in his back pocket I find I either crack my cards in half just from sitting or its the constant pulling out and putting back in from the sleeve in the wallet that wears my strip down. So yes general wear and tear does it for me also.

Alex_LS

LBG_worker wrote: »

It is not possible that a chip could be ruined simply from sitting on a laptop however if the chip gathers dirt dust etc this will damage the chip.

Extremely unlikely. The module faceplate faces much more wear and tear from reader pins than it ever will from a bit of dust.

ElkyElky

Microwave the card. That'll sure to ruin it. :rotfl:

david39

When they first came out there was a warning not to put cards back-to-back in your wallet so that the magnetic strips were in contact with each other. Over a period, they might affect each other's magnetic coding.