Magnetic stripe
The oldest of the three card entry methods, and the weakest — the stripe carries static data where chip and contactless carry cryptographic authentication. It remains worth supporting in a market with many overseas visitors, because some cards a visitor is carrying still require it and the alternative is a sale that cannot be completed at all.
Why it matters to a merchant
Mostly a fallback, and mostly relevant to merchants serving visitors, because the cards that still need it tend to arrive from elsewhere. A merchant whose customers are largely local may never see one; a merchant on a tourist street will, and should know before the queue forms whether their setup handles it and what the staff should do.
Read more: Taking payment from visitors to Singapore
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In this section: At the counter