ID cards are great ways to ensure security and access control and these cards carry critical visual identification information. The information should be placed on the cards and for privacy and security reasons, many businesses encode the data on their cards to ensure the security and confidentiality of the data. There are different types of ID cards available to store data and it will be a good idea to consult an ID card professional to find the best type of ID card that is compatible with your ID card printers. The divergent kinds of data storage ID cards are explained below.

Contact Smart Cards 

These cards have an embedded IC that contains a memory unit or a combination of memory and a microprocessor. Memory-only contact smart cards are functionally similar to floppy disks. These cards are less expensive than microprocessor chip cards, but provide only less security to the stored data and cannot be used to store valuable or sensitive information. ID cards with memory and microprocessor are also like floppy disks but contain a controller that can be used to securely add, delete, update or change data in the memory of the card.

Contactless Smart Cards

The only dissimilarity between contactless and contact smart cards is that the former need not be inserted into a card reader. Instead, these cards contain an antenna that allows reading and writing data in the memory of the card. Contactless smart cards need to go through the range of a radio frequency acceptor to interpret and write information. The range of operation of these cards can vary from 2.5 inches to 3.9 inches, and this can depend on the type of card reader used.

Combi Cards 

These cards are also called dual interface cards and will have a smart chip embedded inside the card. The chip can be accessed via contact with a card reader. The ease of use and high security offered by them are making these cards much popular among the users. A popular application of combi cards is mass transit.

Hybrid Cards 

These cards provide a very good way to update your existing ID card program. Hybrid cards contain two or more embedded chip technologies like a contact smart chip, a proximity chip, and/or a contactless smart chip in a single card. The contact chip in the card can be used in applications that need very high levels of security and the contactless chip can be used for applications that need fast transaction times.