Tell them that you are looking into having your gift cards printed with a third party printer and that you need to know which track on the magnetic stripe needs to be encoded. The answer you are looking for is "Track 1", "Track 2", or "Both Tracks 1 and 2". On rare occasions, a POS provider requires a Track 3 encoding.

The POS software sometimes expects the data encoded on the magnetic stripe to meet certain requirments. Some POS companies require the data have a certain number of characters, or perhaps they must start or end with a certain sequence of characters. Many have no restrictions.

Many people are under the assumption that the magnetic stripe on a gift card is the vehicle that holds the card's value. This is not the case. Most times, the information on a gift card's magnetic stripe is simply an account number. The card is swiped in a magnetic stripe reader, and the machine reads the card number (as opposed to it being manually typed in). Once it receives that account number on the card, the software will produce the account information on the computer's screen, including the card's value. Procedures for doing this varies between POS providers, but that is a simplistic explanation of what type of information is held within the mag stripe on a gift card.

We print Gift Cards compatible with: Aldelo • Aloha • Amber Systems • Amigo • Benseron • Clover • Comcash • Digital Dining • Dinerware • Envision • Ez Dine • Firefly • Focus • Harms Millennium • Hot Sauce • Insight • Jonas • Lightspeed • M9 Creations • Mercury Payment Systems • Micros • Microsale • Microsoft Rms • Mindbody Online • Opticard • Paytronix • Pc America • Pixelpoint • Positouch • Radiant Counterpoint • Resale World • Restaurant Pro • Retail Pro • Revel • Revention • Salesvu • Salon Biz • Salon Iris • Selby Soft • Spabiz • Spa Booker • Vagaro • and many more. Check with one of our representatives if you do not see your point of sale company listed here.