Credit Cards: Learn Credit Card Manufacturing Secrets

We know credit cards as a finished product. A credit card for us is a plastic card with certain features and options. But have you ever wondered how a piece of plastic and the idea of a new credit card product merge and turn into another cash back, low APR, business, etc. credit card prepared for use? Do you know what is developed and produced first - a plastic card itself or different features and terms of a credit card program?

Credit card manufacturing is a complicated process. And you will barely ever get a chance to watch the complex work of professionals producing the cards. Credit card processing center is a closed establishment with limited access. But we can reveal some of the credit card manufacturing secrets to you.

The process of producing credit products involves two major aspects - technical part of making a plastic slice and development of a credit card program. At this point, there are two types of departments in credit card processing center. Software technologies department is where you can find an embryo of a future credit card. It is a maternity home for new-born credit card programs.

Emission department is the place where all credit card orders come to. There is a separate folder for every new card holder to store his or her data in. After the emission department integrates credit consumers' information into a unified computer system, they compose card orders.

After the orders are complete, they are sent to the technical department. It is where plastic masses are shaped into thin slices and gain a habitual form of credit cards. The access to this zone is strictly restricted. Only a staff member that produces cards can enter the department. All of the department's employees are to go through special gateways which identify a person by an access pass.

The gateway not just verifies the person's identity, it also weighs every employee. This measure has nothing to deal with employees' weight control. This security system was developed in order to prevent unauthorized access of two people by one pass. If the weight exceeds the set limit, a person is denied access and gets blocked between bulletproof glass doors.

The next stage of credit card manufacturing is embosser room. The room has no outward walls or windows. This eliminates any chance of unauthorized external access through undermining or explosion tunnel.

All you will find there is a computer and an embosser machine. This is where a physical part of a credit card and its concept with all features, terms, credit card limit, etc. join together. The computer and the embosser machine are connected. All credit card order details are stored in the computer, plastic slices and tapes are inserted into the embosser machine. After a complex mechanical operation the machines delivers a finished credit product with a card number, card holder's name on it and all necessary customer's credit info recorded on a magnetic stripe.

By the way, a banking embosser costs about $50,000 and produces 1,500 plastic cards an hour.

Cards storage, where plastic slices are kept, is the inviolable sanctuary of credit card processing center. This is the most secret and inaccessible room in the center. It has the highest level of protection. Only two staff members with individual keys have access to this room. All possible security measures are taken in order to create a sort of panacea for credit fraud, identity theft and draft slices theft.

The final stage of credit card production is a PIN code creation. It happens in a ciphering room. A special locked cage computer in it generates access codes. No one of employees has access to PIN codes. A special printer ejects codes in a sealed envelope.