Banking : Debit Cards

Customers who have a current account at a bank are issued with a debit card. This can be used to pay for goods by EFTPOS in shops and over the telephone and Internet. It can also be used to guarantee cheques and to withdraw money from an ATM.

A debit card looks like this :

Information is printed on the front of the card in human readable form. The card number, card issue date, card expiry date, name of the account holder, account sort code and account number are all printed.

Information is stored on the back of the card in machine readable form on a magnetic stripe. The card number and expiry date are stored here. This information can be read into a computer automatically using a card reader.

Newer debit cards also contain a small microchip on the front of the card. This can be identified by the metallic terminals which are used to connect the card to a computer. Cards like this are smart cards. The microchip can store much more information than the magnetic stripe can.

GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004