Credit card imprinter(en.wikipedia.org)
en.wikipedia.org
Credit card imprinter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_imprinter
7 comments
I visited Nunavut in 2019 as a researcher, the town I was in still used these at some places. Being born after their widespread use I had no idea what it was
These lasted much longer than the paper Warning Bulletins.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/warning-bulletin.asp
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/warning-bulletin.asp
Something I had to use occasionally in my retail days when our credit card system would go down. Weird to see it written about in historic terms.
The last time I personally witnessed one of these being used was on an Amtrak train in approximately 2006.
I remember this from a taxi ride in the early 2000s. Even then they were pretty rare.
If I remember correctly, up through 2008 even, we would punch the card into the terminal for authorization, use the imprinter to have the customer sign and track the number, and then had to phone call the processor to capture the cards at the end of the day.
[0] After looking it up in the booklet of known bad cards that was mailed to the store, or calling their card processor's phone number to check.