This page describes the technical requirements for Magnetic Card Swipes for use with Cyrious Control and Cyrious SMS.

Magnetic Stripe Overview

The magnetic data stored on a credit card is broken down into 3 sections, or “Tracks” as they are known. Only track 1 & track 2 are used by Cyrious. Track 3 contains “proprietary” data and is never used by Cyrious.

The information stored on tracks 1 & 2 vary by type of card and the merchant bank, but it will include the same information printed on the card (your name, credit card number, and expiration) along with some additional data used by the merchant back to verify that the information came from the credit card. When you swipe a credit card, Cyrious parses this information to retrieve the credit card number, expiration, and name on the card.

Cyrious' Treatment of Magnetic Swipe Data

When you swipe a credit card, Cyrious parses this information to retrieve the credit card number, expiration, and name on the card. Cyrious will also pass this information on to the processorTrack 1 is passed if that is present, otherwise Track 2 is passed. when the credit card is processed.

**Note**: In accordance with PCI regulations Cyrious __never__ stores magnetic swipe data. If you save the credit card information in the customer record the number, expiration, and name will be saved but the magnetic track data is removed. On subsequent use of the contacts stored credit card information, the processor will treat that information as if it were manually typed in.

Hardware Swipes

The recommended hardware swipes (for price and ease of use) are USB Magnetic Card Swipe Readers. You may use either a Track 1&2 or a Track 1,2&3 reader. These readers simulate the keyboard so that the act of swiping a credit card is the same (to the computer) as typing in the information encoded on the magnetic tracks. Using this approach, no special drivers are needed

The model sold by Cyrious is a MagTek #21040145. This is a 3-track mini USB card swipe with keyboard emulation with a 6-foot cable. You can obtain them from Cyrious or hundreds of online sources (including eBay).

Examples of Online Sources

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