Data Encoding

Yes. Plastic Resource can add magstripes to cards, key tags, and combo cards depending on the nature of the encoding/numbering required on the key tags and combo cards. Contact us at sales@plasticresource.com or 833-290-5684 for additional information.

Yes! Any gift card, loyalty card, membership card or key tag from Plastic Resource can contain variable data. In fact, including variable data helps your cards stand out and helps customers better connect with your brand.

Plastic fundraising cards allow organizations to raise funds by displaying discounts from area businesses all in one place. Creating a fundraising card is as simple as finding discounts, creating your card, proofing and approving.

Magnetic stripe cards include a stripe on the back that is encoded with customer data using tiny magnets inside the strip. The stripe is encoded using data from your POS system.

A few POS and credit card processors will not provide the encoding instructions or the file containing the unique numbering to their customers. Often times we have a “work around” for such situations. Contact us at sales@plasticresource.com or 833-290-5684.

The most common barcode is referred to as Code 39 or Code 3 of 9. Code 39 uses a combination of letters, numbers 0-9 and special characters ($, %, +). Typically cards and key tags are encoded with a random, 8-digit number. Code 128 and UPC A are other types of barcodes that can be found on cards and key tags.

Encoding instructions vary greatly for magstripe cards. Card are encoded on either track 1, track 2 or both tracks of a magstripe (think of track as a line in a paragraph). The number of encoded characters generally ranges from 8 to 16 and may require a specific start number or numbering sequence. Please feel free to contact us with specific system or card encoding questions.

Most software systems that utilize key tags and combo cards to identify members or loyalty programs utilize barcodes rather than magstripes. Code 3 of 9 is the most common barcode format.

Encoding is a fancy way of saying unique numbering. Gift, loyalty and membership card and key numbering may be consecutive, random or based on an algorithm and may include letters and special characters. Card and key tag numbers are embedded into magstripes, barcodes or QR codes. The specific encoding format we use with your custom cards and key tags depends on the system you will be using them with. Please feel free to contact us with specific system or card encoding questions.

Not much. Both are mechanisms for embedding a number that references a record in a database on a software system. Magstripes are read by magstripe readers while barcodes are read by barcode scanners.

Your point-of-sale software (POS), credit card processor or gift card software provider will provide you with either:

• The data/encoding instructions (e.g. number of digits, type of barcode, track on the magstripe); Plastic Resource will create the numbering sequence and save it for future order purposes.
• Or, a file with the card numbers in text (.txt), Excel (.xls or .xlsx) or Comma Separated Values (.csv) format.

Yes, however, you will need to transfer the card balance information from your old point-of-sale (POS) system to your new POS system and, in most, cases have a card printing company like Plastic Resource re-number/re-encode the cards. Contact us to learn more.

By creating a custom card complete with magnetic stripe encoding, you can use our custom key cards as hotel key cards for your business. Simply create your hotel key card, proof your card and then pay.

We are happy to answer any additional questions you may have. Call us at 833-290-5684, start a chat now, or complete our contact form.