amb@ai.mit.edu (Andrew Boardman) (09/26/90)
Chris Johnson writes: >Well, that seems like an awfully easy thing to rectify with no new >technology whatsoever: just put two magnetic stripes on the back of >the card, one with the bankcard data and one with the phonecard data. >Then in all those glossy brochures they send to holders of the >Universal Card (like me), they need only instruct the users to insert >the card one way to use the VISA/MC capabilities, and the other way to >use the AT&T phone card capabilities. This occcured to me also when I read the original note, but... -What about instruction for the POS clerk who runs the card through backwards, gets a "bad card" report, and cuts your card in two? -What about instruction for the relatively unsophisticated users who might foul it up as well? In an ATM style machine, it's not always obvious where the stripe should go, and many such machines actually look at the way the raised type is oriented and go by that, i.e., the one in Penn Station, Baltimore... -Do you *really* want more glossy brochures from the Universal Card people? My collection is at 1.5 shoeboxes already... :-) Why not just get a separate phone card with the same number? (Or maybe make your own, with your own account on it? Where can magstrip readers/writers be had, anyway?)