Magnetic Stripe Reader Support and FAQ

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What information can be stored on a magnetic stripe card?
What information is stored on a financial card?
How can I read a Medicare card?
What is encoded on other magnetic stripe cards?
What are high coercivity cards?
Can a magnetic stripe reader read all the tracks on a card at once?

What information can be stored on a magnetic stripe card?
The magnetic stripe card standard for financial cards (ie credit and debit cards) allow for three tracks, called, not surprisingly, tracks one, two and three. Track one can contain up to 79 alpha numeric characters, while tracks two and three can contain up to 40 and 107 numeric characters respectively. Note that track one is the only track in the financial card standard that can contain letters - the other tracks can contain numbers only.
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What information is stored on a financial card?
Typically, a credit or debit card will use all three tracks, although only track two is needed for most non-bank applications. Track two contains the card number, the expiry date, and some other bank-specific information. Track one usually contains the card holder's name, and the card number, along with other bank-specific information. Track three is bank-specific.
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How can I read a Medicare card?
The card number and card expiry date information is encoded on track two, so you'll need a track two magnetic stripe reader. The data on a Medicare card is arranged in four fields, each separated by an = character. The first field can be ignored, the second field is the first nine characters of the card number, the third field is the tenth digit of the card number, and the final field is the card expiry date, in ddmmyy format.
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What is encoded on other magnetic stripe cards?
Almost universally, track two will hold the card number, and where used, the card expiry date. What's on the other tracks, if there's anything at all, is totally up to the manufacturer.
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What are high coercivity cards?
The magnetic strip on high coercivity cards (also called high energy cards) are made up of magnetic particles that are not easily altered by magnetic fields. For example, when a high coercivity card comes into contact with items such as a magnetic screwdriver or magnetic clasp, the information on the card is far less likely to be affected, unlike standard low coercivity cards (also called low energy cards). Although both types of cards can be read with standard magnetic stripe readers, different equipment is required to encode each type of card.
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Can a magnetic stripe reader read all the tracks on a card at once?
Yes. Although in most applications, you will need to read only one track from a card, you can order magnetic stripe readers to read any combination of tracks, such as track two only, tracks one and three, all tracks, etc.
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