Credit cards didn't really catch on until the 1960s. Starting around 1970, IBM began using magnetic strips on credit cards. These magnetic strips were used to store customer information.
This created the need for a payment terminal device to read the information on the magnetic stripe. The device had to be designed to allow customers to "swipe" their cards in order to read the customer information. Thus, the swipe machine was born.
Today it'd be hard to find a retail business that doesn't have a swipe machine. The technology has improved greatly. There are now many different types of credit card machines being used in retail POS systems.
Modern credit card swipe machines are able to process a wide range of non-cash payment methods. Most have keypads to enter PIN codes and other data. They can be mounted to a POS terminal or as a separate handheld device.
Mobile swipe readers are popular because they can go anywhere. The reader is a dongle plugged into a table or other mobile device. Apps are used to process credit card and debit card transactions.
One of the most recent types of card readers is contactless payment terminals. Instead of swiping the card, customers pass their card near a reader. These readers use ultrasonic radio fields to read the data on a chip instead of a stripe.
Swipe machines are an important part of any
POS system. Let's take a look at three benefits of using a credit card swipe machine.