Ensuring your cards comply with the ISO 7810 requirements for card size will be vital in making sure your customers can use them successfully in many day to day applications. In many cases this is simply feeding the cards into and out of many readers. Card readers are built with the understanding that the card will have been constructed to the correct specifications for their ID profile. These will range from swipe magnetic stripe readers, EMV chip readers and automatic teller machines. All of these will require the card to comply with some, if not all, of the requirements set out in ISO 7810.

An example of card dimensions affecting the customer experience with your product could be when using EMV chip readers, in this example your customer is using a card that has low height. Height is measured from the top of the card where the magnetic stripe is (or would be if your card does not have a stripe) to the bottom of the card. The insertion slot on the EMV chip reading EFTPOS terminal at our example store is built to accommodate a standard ID1 card. In this case the card, when inserted into the reader, will be loose in the reader and could be sitting more to the left or right of insertion slot. This can, if severe enough, place the cards contacts on the chip in an unexpected location meaning the contacts will not be positioned to meet with the pins in the back of the reader. This will result in the reader failing to recognise the card and the card being rejected. As it is still possible to insert the card in such a way that it will make contact with the pins, your customers may find the issue to be intermittent and as such all the more frustrating.

CTI offers testing for card dimensions and will test to ensure your cards meet the correct card height along with all other dimension requirements. We will check that your cards meet the requirements for card dimensions as specified by the ISO 7810 standard following the method set out in the ISO 10373-1 standard, which CTI is accredited to perform. So if you need to be assured that your cards are built to industry best standards then please contact CTI about how we can set up a testing plan for you.

Card Dimensions