holographic magstripe citi world elite mastercard

[scottwagnon]

anybody notice that their new citi world elite mastercard holographic stripe is missing? i am really dissapointed by this. i opened a new citi mastercard because of their offer and they sent me a plain boring grey magstripe. i am seriously bummed out.

[Discover2016]

Yep, Citi discontinued the holo strip on their world elite cards. Something about no longer being required by MasterCard. My Double Cash had one when I applied in 2015 but my replacement card has the non holo strip. It's not really a big deal really, also I remember reading that the holo strips were not as durable as the regular silver mag strip. The one company I know that still issues all cards with holo strip is Discover.

[Anonymous]

The holographic magstripe was implemented as a security measure to make it more difficult for thieves to simply copy your card and charge it up.  It wasn't very effective, as retailers didn't know to look for it.  Now that EMV Chip technology is becoming prevalent, copying the stripe is rapidly becoming useless in the first place.

[scottwagnon]

well at least i have cards from last year that have the holo magstripe

[mxp114]

As of 2015, the hologram including the holographic magstripe are no longer required if the card has EMV.

[scottwagnon]

i wonder if you can specifically request it.

[Discover2016]

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@scottwagnon wrote:

i wonder if you can specifically request it.

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I seriously doubt it, they probably dont have any more blank cards to issue that have the holo strip.

[Discover2016]

It was pretty for sure, but in the grand scheme of things, how often do you get to look at the mag strip?

[scottwagnon]

to me the holographic stamp, mark, label, magstripe, etc. are very important to me. while others may not value the holographic, i deeply value it. you see i am facinated by the symbolism of each of the four networks. there is deep if not somewhat hidden and mysterious meaning and symbolism behind their holograms.

no one may realize it, but the fact that there are four networks, and ONLY four credit networks in general (china jcb is all connected to DISCOVER) was not an accident.