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Embossed debit cards and other ghosts of technology past
Many products outlive their usefulness, but it is strangely difficult for companies to let them go
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John Gapper
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A novel item arrived in the post last week - the first debit card issued by my high street bank without a long, bumpy number on the front that steadily wears down and becomes illegible when stored with others in my wallet. Given that payment cards have been embossed for my entire lifetime, it makes a pleasant change to have a flat one.
I cannot remember the last time a merchant produced a credit card imprinter, inserted a carbon paper form and slid a metal bar across the embossed number with a "clack" to take a payment. Even having to swipe the magnetic stripe that has been embedded in cards since 1970 is a rare event.
