Today I was reminded of an old trick I learned from all my years of past cashiering days. While at the store today my debit card wasn’t swiping I tried several times, asked the cashier if she could key it in, but apparently they aren’t allowed to do that anymore, or maybe it was just that store.
So here is the trick to a card that doesn’t swipe while your out and spending money. Alot of people already know this trick but even more do not. Grab a plastic shopping bag, usually right next to you or ask for one. Smooth out all wrinkles and ensure that the bag is tight on the magnetic stripe side of the card. Then swipe your card/bag combo through the card reader, and about nine times out of 10 it will accept it.
I never knew why this works but it does. So here are the results I found on the internet on to possible reasons it may work. Not sure which is true.
Considering the heads of most scanners are spring loaded to ensure good contact and that the thickness of a grocery bag is about .8 mils, it hardly seems likely that the “added thickness”
I assumed it had something to do with the tendency of plastic bags to build a static charge which amplifies the polarization of a worn out magnetic strip making it easier for the reader to pick up.
This trick works because the magnetic strip gets worn down over time and might have small scratches in it and the plastic bag or piece of tape basically makes the strip “whole” again by putting a protective layer over it
Here are some other tricks I have found that may help, besides the bag…
Scotch tape over the strip
Rubbing it on your shirt or pant leg
or even breathing on it
