Visa Debit Card

[something daft already!!]

I was mildly interested today, to see I have been sent out a new replacement debit card.

It is a bit different to the traditional cards which I have been used to. I expect those in retail have already seen them but this was my first time. They have removed the embossed number from the front of the card and the front itself is mostly plain. This means there will be no fallback to the old manual card swipe devices with carbon copies should the power or network fail(not sure if there still is, not worked in retail for over 20 years now). No number or name, just the chip and bank name. On the rear the number is printed in black ink with expiry date, hologram and signature area. There is also a mag stripe for older systems.

Not even sure this is thread worthy but here it is.

 

[something daft already!!]

They looks more like access control cards rather than debit cards.

 

[something daft already!!]

Stupid question but what is the point of the magnetic stripe with chip and pin?

None at all. The mag stipe is used where the signature is checked. This is a throwback to older systems. The sales person would take the card from you, swipe it, you get a bit of paper to sign, they compare and approve or not.

Back in the day I did catch a dodgy card and got a £50 reward. Which back in the 80s was a lot of money.

 

[something daft already!!]

Apparently most cashpoints still use the magstripe so that's another reason it exists.

 

[something daft already!!]

I had forgotten about Electron cards. I had one once, was basically just a cash point card.