For the longest time, credit cards relied on magnetic stripes, but with the rise of the more secure chip and contactless payment methods, the writing has been on the wall for magnetic stripes. Mastercard has officially announced that it will start phasing magnetic stripes out in 2024, with the remainder of stripes going away in 2033.
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Magnetic stripes rose to prominence in the 1960s, so they had a long run as the primary method of processing debit and credit cards. They’re certainly better than the old imprinting credit card processing method, but they’re not as secure as chips.
