Hotel Key Cards

Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card?
Answer:

a. Customer's name
b. Customer's partial home address
c. Hotel room number
d. Check-in date and out dates
e. Customer's credit card number and
expiration date!

When you turn them in to the front desk your
personal information is
there for any employee to access
by simply scanning the card in the hotel
scanner. An employee can
take a hand full of cards home and
using a scanning device, access the information
onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense.
Simply put, hotels do not erase the information
on these cards until an employee re-issues the card to the
next hotel guest. At that time, the new
guest's information is electronically "overwritten" on the card and
the previous guest's information is erased in
the overwriting process.
But until the card is rewritten for the next
guest, it usually is kept
in a drawer at the front desk with YOUR
INFORMATION ON IT!

The bottom line is:
Keep the cards, take them home with you, or
destroy them. NEVER leave them behind in the room or room
wastebasket, and NEVER turn them in to the
front desk when you check out
of a room. They will not charge
you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be
sure you are not leaving a
lot of valuable personal information on it
that could be easily lifted off with any simple
scanning device card reader.
For the same reason, if you arrive at the
airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do
not toss it in an airport trash basket. Take it home and destroy
it by cutting it up, especially through the
electronic information strip!
You can also use a small magnet and pass it
across the magnetic strip
several times . Then try it in the door, if it
does not work it erases everything on the card.
Information courtesy of: Pasadena Police Department