High-Coercivity vs. Low-Coercivity Magnetic Striped Cards

There are 2 popular type of Magnetic Stripe cards:

• High Coercivity (HiCo) @ 4000 Oe: Info are harder to erase, are used in application where cards are frequently used or need to have long life. High coercivity stripes are resistant to damage from most magnets or magenetic fields. Typical high coercitivity transaction: Access control, time & attendance, gift card.




• Low Coercivity (LoCo) @ 300 Oe: Requires lower amount of energy to record and easier to erase. Can be damaged by even a brief contact with a magnetic field. Typical transaction: hotel room keys and other cards where usage for only short period of time.

The encoding technique is the same for both coercivity, except that stronger electrical current required for the encoder to write on the High Coercitivity mag stripe.

ISO relation

ISO 7811: Standard hi-co stripes to tolerate a magnetic field strenght 10 times that of low coercitivity magnetic stripe. Eg: Bank Card, Credit Card