Magnetic stripe card is a type of PVC card with a band of magnetic material embedded into resin on the back of the card. The magnetic stripe is read by physical contact and swiping past a reading head. Magnetic stripe cards are commonly used in credit and identity cards. A magstripe encoder is available for all Magicard printers. 
 

There are two 2 types of magnetic cards :  High coercivity (HiCo) and low coercivity (LoCo) with 3 tracks.Encoding for the three tracks can use either the ISO 7811 format, or, for special application, a user specific custom format can be employed. HiCo cards are more reliable than LoCo cards as the magnetic layer is denser and therefore much less susceptible to stray field erasure.

Other types of cards with magstripe:
Smart cards are a newer generation of card containing an integrated circuit chip. The card may have metal contacts connecting the card physically to the reader, while contactless cards use a magnetic field or radio frequency (RFID) for proximity reading.
More and more hotels used mag card as hotel room key card.
 
The HiCo magstripes:
High coercivity magstripes are harder to erase, and therefore appropriate for cards that are frequently used or require a longer life. They are to be preferred for any new application, despite their slightly higher cost.
 
The LoCo magstripes:
Low coercivity magstripes require a lower amount of magnetic energy to record, and hence the card writers are much cheaper than machines which are capable of recording high-coercivity magstripes