Plastic Access Card
Magnetic or chip cards with or without photo used to enter restricted areas eg. ID badges.
Blank Plastic Cards
Cards with no printing usually used in imagining machines
Coercivity
A measure of the strength of a magnetic field. Fields are expressed as low or high by the terms LoCo and HiCo.
Contact
A point of electrical connection between a smart card and its external interface device.
Contact Card
Any card where information is transferred to a reader via a series of contact points located on the card.
Degaussing
Magnetic stripe data erasure.
Digitizing
Conversion of non-textual data to digital form.
Embossing
Characters in relief on the front surface of a card.
Encoding
Recording electronic information on to a magnetic stripe.
Encryption
Transferring information based on a key to make it un-intelligible to unauthorized parties.
Electronic Gift Card
A retail prepaid card usually initiated at cash or checkout.
Initialization
Programming a smart card chip with data that is the same for a batch of cards.
ID Card
Card which identifies both the bearer and the issuer. All financial transaction cards are ID cards.
ISO
International Standards Organization, central body for formation and dissemination of industry standards for all national standards bodies.
Issuer
An individual or organization that issues identification cards to individual or corporate cardholders.
Lithography or Offset Printing
Most common process for plastic card printing based on the concept that oil and water are not compatible. The ink represents the oil and the alkaline fountain solution represents the water. These are the two main components which must interact during the printing process, allowing the ink to adhere to the image area of a printing plate while the fountain solution repels the ink from the non-image area.
Lamination
Using plates on a press to fuse the various layers of a plastic card together.
Loyalty Card
Usually a retail frequent user card offering promotional benefits.
Magnetic Stripe
The strip of magnetic recording material on an ID card.
Plastic Membership Card
Usually a club member card for ID purpose.
Non-magnetic Card
Cards without a magnetic stripe eg. ID cards.
Off-line
A transaction via paper or reader not connected to a central system.
On-line
A transaction on a terminal permanently connected to a network that is on-line to the card account.
Personalization
Printing, encoding and programming a card with data specific to an individual cardholder.
Prepaid Card
A card paid for at point of sale permitting the holder to buy goods and services up to the prepaid value.
Promotional Card
A card offering special benefits to users eg, discount card.
PVC
Polyvinyl chloride, the most widely used plastic material for ID cards.
Radio Frequency Card (RFID)
A proximity card in which the coupling between the card and the interface device is by radio.
Signature Panel
The area of an ID card where the cardholder enters a signature.
Skimming
Copying the magnetic stripe encoding from one card to another.
Stored Value Card (aka cash card, electronic purse, prepaid card)
A financial card that is loaded with a certain amount of money with each purchase amount deducted from the card.
Substrate
Material upon which a plastic card is printed.
Transit Card
Magnetic or chip card used for transportation services eg. subway card.
Telecom Card
Magnetic or chip card used for telephone services eg. GSM card, prepaid card.
Traditional Card
A magnetic or non magnetic card not using chip card technology.