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Laundry Market
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Stored Value Wickets
No Networks - Data Is
Right On The Card |
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Credit vs. Debit vs. Stored Value
There are basically three ways in which payment cards are used:
1) as
a credit card wherein a trusted 3rd party (such as Visa or
MasterCard) agrees to pay the seller for you now and bill you later
for the sales amount,
2) as a debit card wherein you have money
on deposit with a trusted 3rd party (such as a bank) and the seller is
instantly paid by debiting your deposit account, and
3) as a stored
value card wherein you have purchased credits form an
establishment which are stored in memory on the card and debited from
the card as they are used. (Note: Some gift cards promoted in the
market place are referred to as stored value cards, but they are
technically debit cards as the value is stored in a remote account -
not on the card.) |
Wickets Stored
Value Advantages
The benefits of a Stored Value Wickets as compared to credit cards or
debit cards (including private debit cards that merely act as a
reference number to a remote sever account) are simply summarized as
follows:
- There is no network wiring, thus no cost to run
communication cables from each machine back to some central location
to connect to a server holding the actual account information.
- Wicket Readers work independently when reading and
debiting Wickets. There is no reliance on a common remote server or
communication link that could fail and halt your entire business.
- There are
no magnetic stripe reader heads to get dirty,
no Smart
Card electrical contacts to fail, no mechanical moving parts,
and no exposed electronics. Basically there is
nothing to
maintain!
- You can have
full-custom or semi-custom graphics to reflect the
nature of your business. Full-custom Wickets include graphics and
text. Semi-custom graphics is just text over standard graphics.
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 Where
Values Are Stored
Each Wicket has an RFID (radio frequency identification) inlay, like
the one pictured to the right, laminated on the inside layers of the
Wicket card or key tag. A loop antenna with about 10 coils surrounds a
central chip which contains both communication and memory circuitry.
The circuit is actually powered by extracting energy from the near
field of the Wicket Reader antenna. IDX Wickets use inlays meeting the
international standard
ISO 15693. The value stored in the RFID chip
memory circuits is protected from hackers by numerous means as
described on the Wickets Security web page. |
What Is Stored On A Wicket
The most important piece of data stored on the chip of every RFID
inlay is a unique 64-bit User ID number that is written permanently to
it in the factory. There are enough numbers so that each of the 6
billion people on earth could each have 3-billion unique numbers for
themselves. So, we won't be running out of those anytime soon. All
other information stored in memory is written there by the Wickets
system and includes:
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Site ID: The
Site ID value ties each
Wicket and each Wicket Reader to a particular site to prevent
cross-play between Wickets of different proprietors.
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Function ID: The
Function ID identifies
the function for which a
particular Wicket is to be used in the system. The various functions
include a) customer Wickets, b) service Wickets, c) configuration
Wickets), and report Wickets.
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Account Balance: The Account Balance holds
the amount of real money a customer has put onto his Wicket that may
possibly be refunded for cash. Wickets can be 'pre-valued' at the
factory, by Wickets
Administrator, or at a Revalue
Station.
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Bonus Balance: The Bonus Balance holds the
amount of Bonus Bucks that can be used the same as money in
operation of the equipment, but which is not refundable for cash. A
Bonus Balance can be put on at the factory, by
Wickets Administrator,
or at a Revalue Station.
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Loyalty Points: One Loyalty Point is
accumulated for each dollar actually spent at an establishment.
Loyalty Points can be redeemed for Bonus Bucks according to a ratio
setup by the operator, or redeemed by whatever method and for
whatever value the establishment may like.
What Is NOT
Stored On A Stored Value Wicket
There is no personal information stored on a Wicket. No name, no
address, no social security number, no bank account number, and not
even the name of your secret lover... did you actually read this far?
Amazing!
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