Mastercard has decided that the magnetic stripe is outdated and has no reason to exist in the distant future, and plans to eliminate this element in its credit cards and debit cards.
The days of cards as we know them are numbered. The typical thing of having a piece of plastic with the chip in front and the black magnetic stripe on the back has come to an end. The latter seems to be dispensable nowadays.
Mastercard has announced the disappearance of this element in its cards. However, this will not take effect immediately. What they expect is that from 2024 onwards, this technology will be seen less and less on cards and that by 2033 there will be none with a magnetic stripe left.
Will they still be secure? Mastercard’s answer is yes. The magnetic stripe is one of the easiest elements to copy or hack. The company is betting on payments using the chip, in addition to contactless payments.
What has led Mastercard to make this decision is a study commissioned by the company in which the guarantees offered by payments using chip cards are clear? In addition, more and more payments are made without inserting the card and entering the pin.
In addition, the pandemic has led to the spread of card payments. Cash is becoming less and less prevalent and everything indicates that in a few years payments will be made almost entirely with cards and these cards will not have the characteristic magnetic stripe on the back. We will have to wait and see how other companies such as Visa react.
