who the hell thinks up stuff like this?

Not to question you or anything, but I didn't know that Costco carried plastic bags.

I did have this happen to me before (my card not working), and the cashier spooled out some receipt paper and covered it with that, then swiped my card. This apparently worked. I wonder what makes it work?

Grab a piece of scotch tape, put it on once and it'll work. Just leave it on and you won't have to worry about paper, plastic bag, or licking your card. eww I agree with discounteggroll, who thinks of this?

This actually does work.Helps when you're at checkout in your local supermarket when the card reader is too finicky.

Also helps if you're single and alone on a lonely night.......

I'm just saying

@discounteggroll: Magnetic stripe fetishists? I'm with the OP, that's gross.

Running the card through the reader with some receipt tape folded over the magnetic stripped always worked for me.

*strip

Bad headline. She didn't lick the card. She licked her finger then rubbed the card.

I have done this to my own cards but not to someone elses.

A policy would be a waste of time and money. She didn't run her tongue over your card. Her actions didn't harm you - in fact, she helped by making your card work.

Where's the issue here?

That sounds like good customer service to me.

You could always clean it later if it bothered you.

What a dumbass story. This is right up there with the bitch who was crying about McDonalds coke cups the other day. Stop shitting on this site with these bullshit stories.

By the way, is it wrong that this story kind of turned me on?

I would go back and ask for her phone #

Seriously,she didn't actually lick it,but that's going...uh.."above and beyond" good customer service

if mine doesn't read at the self checkout things i just swipe slower and lean it slightly so that the card definitely makes contact with the sides of the slot.

@friendlynerd:

There is none, except that we have yet another retarded story to comment on.

@BitterSugar: Agreed. You hand your card over to germy people all the time at the cash register. I would be happy if someone thought to do what the cashier did; now you have a card that works!

when I used to be a cashier, I would just wipe the strip on my pants and that usually did enough to make it work. Most of the time it's just sickeningly dirty

"I think Costco should have a policy about employee licking. "... um, yes, of course!!!

also, yes lets be happy the card worked, but really- someone elses spit i'm only willing to deal with if it involves a nice dinner paid for beforehand and perhaps some loving feelings afterwards over a glass of wine and wheel of fortune.

I think Mythbusters will have to test this for us!

@discounteggroll: @Megatenist: @

These posts are killing me but it does make a Friday go by a little quicker.

href="#c5617367">gomakemeasandwich:
Isn't it supposed to be gomakemeasandwichbitch?

I think Costco should hire card lickers.

Or perhaps stores could clean the card reader heads from time to time. Like any magnetic medium the reader heads clog with dirt and magnetic particles from the cards.

@gomakemeasandwich: Sorry! Isn't it supposed to be gomakemeasandwichbitch?

@Juggernaut:

I didn't want anyone to be offended.

How about:

Card Won't Swipe? Rub Saliva On It!

@gomakemeasandwich, its not the same at all. The McDonalds story was valid, paid for a large and got a medium, make sence? No.

You don't actually 'rub the card with a plastic bag to generate static electricity', that's a sure way to demagnetise the card.

You wrap the plastic around the card like a condom and swipe it that way.

I'm disappointed, I thought she *actually* licked it. :(

Sometimes old cards are too thin to be read. A bit of tissue works too to build it up a bit.

@friendlynerd:
I don't want anyone saliva on my credit card I don't really care how they put it there or what the outcome is, it's gross.

Who thinks of stuff like this?

Easy: MacGyver.

I bet you he's already figured out a way to make it work with Chili's funky chunky sour cream too.

From what I've always heard the reason behind why some of these tricks work is that when you stick these cards in a wallet the pressure flattens them after a while. Its expecially true for men who not only have all that junk in the wallet pressing against the cards but sit on it all day long.

Thats why the bags, paper, tape etc work. They give it just that much more thickness so that the card hits the reader correctly.

There was an old consumerist article on making "custom" credit cards with iron ons. They mentioned in that too that the extra bit of thickness from the iron on actually helped the cards read better.

@Juggernaut: Shouldn't it be gomakeasandwichsoicaneatitbitch? Otherwise you'll wind up transformed into a sandwich. Trust me, I should know.

@Simkins:

Yeah, it was valid if you care about 4oz of sugar water.

What if they used a dog's saliva? Aren't their mouths supposed to be cleaner than ours? That's it, Costco should have card dogs. It'd be cute, too.
I just think it's gross that a cashier would actually lick her finger after touching all that dirty money and merchandise. I know that after my retail shifts the dirt makes the sink black, yuck.
@ the tape person...I do that, too. Customers are always impressed.

@sublicon:

Me too actually.

@smallestmills:

If she's that dirty on shift, imagine what kind of freaky shit she's in to after she get off work.

This is old news. We've been doing that for years. (yes, years, I received my first ATM card in 1981) I'm just not sure I want someone else's spit on my card.

@discounteggroll:

A freak. A freak you'd want to marry. Think about it.

@dwneylonsr:

I heard you can get AIDS from cashier spit on credit cards. It's true.

Doesn't bother me. When I was a cashier, I licked my fingers all the time to get the crappy plastic bags off the holder and separate bills. Some people get upset over something like that, but really - considering all the stuff I've handled throughout the day and how many hands money has gone through, my couple licked fingers is the least of your worries. It was actually more dangerous to me than you.

Some cashiers would use wet paper towels or sponges instead of licking their fingers. Seems like a good idea, but in reality those sponges and paper towels are even better breeding grounds for germs.

Really, I think we're way too obsessed with germs. I'm a fairly clean person, but people freak out to much about that sort of thing. There's anti bacterial EVERYTHING, and all it's doing is just giving us stronger bacteria as a result.

Only in America does this matter. If someone complained in Bulgaria about this they'd be laughed out of the forum.

@bonzombiekitty:

Fitting the growing problem of drug resistant bacteria in to a post about a customer using her spit to lube a credit card...I'm impressed.

@timmus:

Don't be silly, no one has credit cards in Bulgaria. Or money.

Clear tape also works very well. Put the tape over the magnetic strip, run your fingers over it a couple of times to make sure that there are no air bubbles, then swipe. Works 99% of the time!

@tande: It's more like the bags, paper, etc help filter the signal noise when the magnetic particles start to smear. The licking helps too, but it also helps clean the strip a bit.

Sitting on your credit cards all day won't reduce the thickness much compared to the amount of wear it takes from swiping. Though, if it's a cheap ass card, then some electronics or magnets that may be kept in or near a wallet can demagnetize it, even other credit cards can do it. But it takes time and the card has to be super cheap--not credit cards, more like those damned pass cards at Disney World that can't seem to stay magnetized for a day.

@seamer: Uh, no. Static electricity does not demagnetize magnetic strips, or any other magnetic material. As for Ben's comment that the static is what helps the card read, no, that's not true, either.

I can't imagine why the bag trick works, but there seems to be a fair amount of anecdotal evidence to show that it does. I suspect it either has to do with a slight change in the magnetic flux level from having a few microns of extra space between the stripe and the reader head, or keeping the dirt on the stripe away from the reader head.

@pestie:

So you shoot down all of their ideas, but admit you have no idea why it works? I love it.

I've been waiting for this magic moment!

music video: "Mr. Big Spenda" by Licky

//double bonus points?

@pestie: Enough magnetic pull will mess up your credit card. My hubby had some huge PA replacement speakers delivered to the house. I piled them up on the floor next to the dining room table where my bag was. Every card in my wallet started acting irratic or not at all. I had to get all of them replaced. The bank couldn't even get the old ones to work.