How to Fix a Stubborn Credit Card
**Secret Revealed**
Have you ever worn out a magnetic card? You can ask your bank for a new one but it usually takes a few days. In the meantime, you can put a piece of clear tape or use some receipt paper from the cashier to cover the magnetic stripe while the card is swiped.
Usually, the cashier will do this for you, but if not then you can ask them to try it. Some may even use a plastic bag, but any thin barrier may work. Be sure it’s very thin so it doesn’t get jammed in the card reader.
Many people know about this little trick; the real secret is why it works…
As a magnetic card gets used, the magnetically charged particles get smeared. This smearing repeated many times creates magnetic noise which distorts the data when read. The magnetic strength of the noise is low enough that a small barrier can block or reduce it enough to get a proper reading from the card.
For a bit of anecdotal evidence, I worked retail back in college and I used this trick hundreds of times — it worked nearly every time.
Chad Upton is the editor-in-chief of Broken Secrets and an official Yahoo Answers contributor.
Thanks for reading,
Sources: creditcards.com, wired magazine (Nov 2011)
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Another trick is to hold the card so it is slightly curved and run it through the machine like that, as a cashier you learn different tricks to get the cards to read.
Now I can start building my credit card debt with my old cards!
Interesting!I’ve been working as a cashier in 2 different stores for 10 and a half years,and,have done the old plastic bag trick with worn & demagnetized credit & debit cards & their strips a lot,but,never knew how or why the old plastic bag trick would work the way it did and still does,until now.The customers didn’t know it and still don’t know it either.
it can also be enter in msnunally too
If your using the metal contact clean it with isopropyl alcohol and a Q-tip.
I work in retail too, it does work. But, I also heard that this is illegal. ? 0_o
GOOD EXAMPLE
I work at KFC and I have to do this all the time with my customers, with miraculous results. (plastic bags work well)
Another common trick of retailers to extend the life of your card is to cover the magnetic strip with clear sellotape.
I find that often the problem is with individual EFTPOS machines rather than the cards. I have found that most machines I swipe my card and it works first time every time while other machines won’t work at all.
i normally carry my card in my hip pocket wallet and it does get bent or curved because i sit on it ,when it wont work the girl on the till looks at it then bends it in the opposite direction
I’ve known about this trick for a while, I usually use cellotape. However, I wasn’t aware WHY it worked. cool stuff.
my dad has complained that his debit card often doesn’t “work” at the grocery stores we visit frequently even though he knows his bank balance is just fine. He swipes it several times and has the cashier swipe and has difficulty making it work. Now after reading this article it makes me wonder whether this was the issue with his card all along! Very interesting! I learned something new and very useful, thanks! I’ll pass this info along to my dad.
I have seen this done, by smart cashiers. I never really knew how they felt it would work. Good article
I wonder how this bit of rather obscure information can be so well distributed and yet so few know *why* it works. I guess it just goes to show that success does not need an explanation.
Why don’t they just put a thin layer of plastic over the strip to begin with when they make the card?
I have never had this work. I’m a cashier at a grocery store and this almost NEVER works. What works for me every time is sliding the card from the bottom up. You slide the card almost the same way every time. If this smearing holds true, then sliding in the opposite direction should be more effective than a barrier because the signal should be stronger in the reverse direction. Essentially, if the charged particles in the magnetic strip are scrambled more towards the bottom of a card due to this “smearing” than sliding the opposite direction or turning the card over and sliding that way should put the more charged side in the reader first and it should read the card.
Pollo Loco 3 years, plastic bags and manuel inputs.
this is an old trick that works, fortunately here in the UK we now use chip and pin cards so no longer have this problem although I have just come back from the US where a few times this problem did occur as the magnetic strip is still being used.
I carry my wallet in my front pants pocket for two reasons:
1) Less chance of someone stealing it.
2) Less chance of cards getting bent.
Good to know. I’m smarter now. God bless you.
Here is a question, suppose I have lost my credit card and bank has lock or block it on my request then I found it next day and try to use it, will your trick be work though bank has been already blocked it?
I rarely use credit cards, so I pretty much buy everything with cash, I don’t even like using debit cards. It also works with other types of magnetic strip cards. when I was a undergrad freshman about 5 years ago I worked in one of the computer labs, the access door to the servers required a key card, Plastic wrap worked nicely when the door wouldn’t open. This would probably work with hotel key cards as well.
Thanks for the tip! some places no longer key in the number, I wonder, what if that card is the only one? Do dishes?
Thanks again
Actually, unless the card holder finds its happening all the time, it usually happens because the retailer’s card reader needs cleaning. The magnetic particles being smeared would not be fixed by using a barrier to build up the card.
Retailers – clean your card readers more often.
Strange…I’ve tried this hundreds of times and this trick rarely ever works. In fact, I can’t remember a single time in which it did. Just get a new card, people….it’s not so difficult. While your waiting for it to arrive, just write checks, or *gasp* get money from the bank. It’s really why they exist in the first place.
put transperant tape ontop of the black part or a bag
You can also brush toothpaste onto it. This works because toothpaste has an anti-magnetic property that orders that electromagnetic waves, returning it back to normal. However, you cannot remove the toothpaste at any time.
Some card readers have two tape heads (they are just like the things in a tape player) on opposite sides so you can swipe the card in either direction. I have a card that never reads in the way most people swipe them, so I just turn the card upside down and it works every time.
Or exhale slowly on the magnetic strip.
Okay, that’s not something you might care to do in a queue, but as a student, I recall those moments of despair. Most cards were fine when you ‘hawed’ on them and inserted them again.
It was no joke when you knew you had thirty in your account and the weekend ahead. Don’t panic!
if what your saying about the smearing is true then a barrier wont help but make it worse because the magnetism left would be weakened so what r u on
I have done this many times with plastic shopping bags, to get customers’ cards to read. A customer once showed me the trick. I never really knew how it worked until now, though!
I just don’t understand why people abuse/wear out their cards, and don’t bother to replace them? It isn’t that hard, and would save aggravation those times when nothing will make that card read!
I once returned from India to Germany and was broke at Munich airport, and so was my bank’s debit card; I was in urgent need of some money, and I can confirm that applying some piece of adhesive tape on the magnetic strip DID really work.
I enquired at my bank recently how they handle the new European ec / debit cards, and the information I got was this:
- First they try to read out the microchip on them
- If this fails, they’ll fall back to the magnetic strip
- That will be tried several times and the card will be returned twice before the ATM will finally swallow it
So there’s enough time to try the adhesive tape trick. But as a tourist to Europe, I’d rather recommend you do it outside the bank’s building. ATMs usually have cameras, and you might be suspect to credit card fraud. Friendly as German police usually are, a night in a prison cell is not where you want to be. (Though they serve some REAL good coffee; one cup makes about 65 Euros, lodging included.)
this is soooo stupid… just call and get a new card!!
Yes you could use a plastic bag, or a reciept paper, or cover it with something else, or order a new one which sucks because you need to wait for it to come which can take a few weeks in which that time your old one will get canceled. OR you can use what most cards and machines have these days called a pay pass, which lets you tap the card on the card reader and it takes the payment, no swiping needed! And it saves the life of your cards magnetic bar.
I know these tricks work but the magnetic smudge explanation makes no sense. My understanding is that the cards simply stop aligning properly with the reading heads due to wear or bending. Adding the thin bit of material is like bringing the old worn card back to its proper thickness.
Covering up the “smudge noise” would also cover the actual magnetic info so that explanation makes the opposite of sense.
All the techniques are good for people to know anyway in an emergency.
This is great. Who found out about this?
my bank card won’t work on a daily basis. to the people who said “why not just get a new card”–I did that. Again and again and again. then I go to a store and voila it doesnt’ work ( I had never heard of the plastic bag thing so I am very hopeful now that I read this) I then go to bank, they “fix” it in the system. I try it at the bank in 3 different machines, including ATM…..it works…..then I go to a store for shopping, and again, it does not work. It is only this card and it is a new card and no, I no longer keep it near anything with magnets. bank told me the first time, that was the problem. it is not the problem. I told bank yesterday I was going to “google” this and that is when I found this page. Thank you !
fingers crossed.