Swipe

In the payments industry, a swipe refers to the action of sliding a magnetic stripe card through a card reader to initiate a transaction. This method is commonly used for credit and debit cards that have a magnetic stripe on the back.

In order to work, the card’s magstripe swipe must come in contact with an enabled card reader before any transaction can take place. The card is slid through a slot on the reader, which reads the stripe’s encoded information. Details such as the card number and expiration date are combined with other transaction data, then transmitted to the payment processor for authorization and settlement.

While swiping was once a standard practice for card payments, it is gradually being replaced by more secure methods like EMV chip cards and contactless payments. However, swiping still plays a role in certain situations where the chip or contactless technology is unavailable.