Can our mobile phone damage the magnetic strip of the credit cards?

• The ‘smartphones’ contain magnets that may affect your card.
• One of the keys is in the type of magnetic stripe: if it is black or brown.

it Is one of the beliefs most widespread is that mobile phones may affect the operation of the credit cards, in particular, to their magnetic strip. According to popular belief, the phone can ‘degauss’ the card. This statement has its nuances, as explained in the article Gizmodo.

The magnetic strip of the card is formed by a ferromagnetic particle and aligned in a certain way with magnetism. But to move them, you need amagnetic field strong enough.

In effect, the mobile phone has a magnet. The most important is the internal speaker. This may render the card, but it will depend on the type of magnetic strip.

There are two types of band.

The high coercividad and the low coercividad. The first are black and are made of barium ferrite, while the latter tend to be brown and are made of iron oxide. The important (banking, health card, etc) often have a black band, while the less important, type membership card to the library or a hotel, have the brown band.

In any case, to alter the magnetic strip of a card is missing a magnetic field of 1,000 gauss. A magnet home usually does not exceed 100 gauss, and which contain the mobile is between 1.2 and 10 milligauss, so it is extremely unlikely that a mobile phone be able to disable a card, especially if it is high coercividad. It is more likely that a scratch will render the band a magnet.

Tecnología