Campus ID News
Card, mobile credential, payment and security
FEATURED
PARTNERS
Thowback Thursday Slider 1 1

TBT: Debunking the demagnetized card myth

Andrew Hudson   ||   Jan 14, 2016  ||   ,

In honor of Throwback Thursday, each week we're going to pull and review a story from the CR80News archives. With any luck, in the time since these stories originally broke some form of progress will have been made, predictions will have come true -- or not -- and at the very least we can sit back and wonder what we were thinking.

The first edition of Throwback Thursday isn't the furthest jump back in time, but it's one of CR80News' most highly trafficked stories year after year. It's the infamous "cell phone demagnetizing a key card" myth. This story has been so popular over the years that it merited an update in 2011, and still the hits keep coming.

Citing a CPI Card Group study conducted in 2009, card users experienced issues while carrying mag stripe movie theater cards in their pockets with a cell phone.

Crucially, though, mag stripes vary in their coercivity, with higher coercivity stripes -- typically deployed on credit cards -- being more resistant to demagnetization than hotel key cards that traditionally fall lower on the coercivity scale. The lower the coercivity the more susceptible the card will be to demagnetization, but questions have long existed as to whether a cell phone has a powerful enough magnetic force to impact even a low coercivity card.

It's not clear exactly why this story remains so popular years after being published, but with mag stripe technology still a mainstay on a great number of college campuses nationwide, it is clear that fundamental questions surrounding mag stripe technology are still being asked.

From 2011, here's Mythbusters: Can a mobile phone erase a hotel key card?

To keep up with Throwback Thursday stories and other key happenings, follow and engage with CR80News on Twitter.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

RECENT ARTICLES

Brista Hurst UT Tyler

Learn to analyze card system data at NACCU’s popular Data Summit

In a recent CampusIDNews Chats interview, Brista Hurst-Kent, Business Technology Services Manager at the University of Texas at Tyler, shared her experience attending the NACCU Data Summit. This two-day workshop focused on empowering participants to use common reporting tools – specifically Microsoft Excel with Power Pivot and Power Query – to create interactive dashboards that […]
Credentials 101 Series banner

Understanding chip options for contactless campus cards

Three main components underly modern credential technology – chips, formats, and encryption. Each are applicable to both cards and mobile credentials and understanding them is key to making informed decisions for your campus card program. In this series of articles, we will dive into each component, but first a brief preview. Chips are the core of […]
Apex OrderHQ Array modular lockers
Jul 02, 25 /

Modular locker solution streamlines campus order pickup

Apex Order Pickup Solutions launched a new modular system of automated order pickup lockers that can be stacked or setup in custom configurations. The OrderHQ Array Series lockers work in any floor plan without expensive remodeling. In an interview with Food On Demand, Kent Savage, founder and executive chairman of Apex Order Pickup Solutions, compares […]
CIDN logo reversed
The only publication dedicated to the use of campus cards, mobile credentials, identity and security technology in the education market. CampusIDNews – formerly CR80News – has served more than 6,500 subscribers for more than two decades.
Twitter

Attn: friends in the biometrics space. Nominations close Friday for the annual Women in Biometrics Awards. Take five minutes to recognize a colleague or even yourself. http://WomenInBiometrics.com

Feb. 1 webinar explores how mobile ordering enhanced campus life, increased sales at UVA and Central Washington @Grubhub @CBORD

Load More...
Contact
CampusIDNews is published by AVISIAN Publishing
315 E. Georgia St.
Tallahassee, FL 32301
www.AVISIAN.com[email protected]
Use our contact form to submit tips, corrections, or questions to our team.
©2025 CampusIDNews. All rights reserved.