Plastic Discount Cards - A Short Glossary of Important Terms

The popularity of plastic discount cards has soared in the UK. Here's a short list of some of the key terms related to using these important business tools.

Access control cards: A type of custom plastic card used to gain access to premises, usually associated with magnetic stripe. Some discount stores require customers to show a plastic ID card that identifies them as registered customers.

Microprocessor cards: These cards are also known as "smart" cards because they have an embedded microprocessor. A common use for a microprocessor card would be a plastic coupon card.

Memory cards: Another smart card with embedded memory technology that can be programmed as desired. Like microprocessor cards, they can track preferences and purchases as well as function as a plastic discount card.

Proximity cards: Also known as "prox" cards, these are a another type of smart card that contains an embedded metallic antenna. These cards are used mostly for access control. A plastic security card is an example of a proximity card.

Bar code: A way of encoding information into a series of machine-readable bars and spaces. Depending on how the bars are arranged, they can represent letters, numbers or symbols. Bar codes are commonly found on plastic membership cards.

Optical character recognition (OCR): A process that allows material to be scanned into a computer. OCR imprinting on a plastic card might contain customer demographic information. OCR encoding might be found on a plastic loyalty card.

Magnetic stripe: Magnetic material that is applied on the surface of a card and to encode cardholder information. A plastic credit card generally contains a magnetic stripe.

Plastic discount cards are easy to produce and distribute to your customers in the UK. All it takes is a little planning and forethought to implement a plastic card program in your business.

Charlie Bennot is premier card printing expert working with conceptcard.co.uk for the last 12 years. ConceptCard is one of the UK's premier providers of cost effective plastic cards for membership, loyalty, hotel key access photo ID and business cards. Over 21 years experience enables ConceptCard to specialise in High Quality, Short Run Card Solutions where Cost, Quality and Speed are your primary requirements. ConceptCard is specialized in providing plastic card - custom plastic card - plastic business cards - plastic card printer - plastic card printing - plastic credit card - plastic discount cards - plastic id card - plastic loyalty card - plastic membership cards - plastic security card.