Magnetic stripe
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A magnetic stripe, sometimes called a magstripe, refers to a band of magnetic material on credit cards, transit fare cards or identification cards to store information. The magnetic stripe is read by physical contact and swiping past a reading head.
This is in contrast to the newer generation of smart cards which contain an actual computer chip with metal contacts, or contactless cards which use a magnetic field or radio frequency (RFID) for close-proximity reading.