Swiped

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Swiped

Swiping a credit card or debit card is something most people are very familiar with, even though it isn’t as common today as it once was. 

Swiping means putting a payment card into a magnetic stripe credit card reader to process a payment. Cards are swiped in a few different ways, including: 

• Putting the card into a slot in a machine with the stripe on the back facing to the left. 
• Sliding a card through a reader horizontally with the front of the card facing up. 

Swiping Alternatives

There are other ways to make payments too. 

• Inserting it at a kiosk - With this method, the machine that takes the payment should have a picture on it that shows how the card should be inserted. It could be vertically or horizontally. 
• Inserting it at a chip reader - Most payments processed at POS systems today require a chip. The chip end of the card is inserted into the reader and left in the machine until the transaction is authorized. 
• Tapping at an RFID reader - Many cards come equipped with RFID wireless capabilities. If the business has an RFID reader, all the customer has to do is tap their card on the reader. 

Even if you have to insert a chip, you may be asked to swipe your card as well. 

Before Swiped Cards

Swiping credit and debit cards changed the way payments are processed forever. Prior to that, manual imprinters were the standard. 

A manual imprinter is a machine that would copy a customer’s card on a double receipt. Stores would use this to record payment information. 

Once the information was recorded, the receipt would be sent off to the bank for payment processing, which could take a couple of weeks. 

After that, phone authorizations became common. Businesses would call a number on the card and get verbal approval from a customer service representative. 

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