In the past
few years, plastic gift cards and loyalty cards have exploded onto the American
marketplace. They have become outrageously popular with millions of patrons of
restaurants, retail stores, spas & salons, movie theaters, grocery stores,
etc., etc. If you are a merchant and want to make a good, educated decision on
what kinds of cards are best to purchase for your business, read on.
First, you
have to decide what's most important to you. For example, is looks and
durability of utmost importance to you or is price? What is your application
for using the cards... as gift cards, loyalty cards, cash cards, promotional
cards or all the above?
If your
answer is gift cards and a great looking, eye-catching card is a must, then you
better be looking for a card printer who can print you customized, 30 mil
thick, laminated PVC plastic cards. They are noticeably the best looking and
best feeling cards on the market. Consequently, they are the most popular.
Because of their popularity over the past few years, the prices have come down.
So you don't have to pay too much of a premium for them either... and sometimes
none at all! But if your budget is extremely tight, you might see if you can
get by with laminated paper core cards or styrene cards. Although cheaper, they
have their down sides. Laminated paper cards don't have as good of an
appearance and feel as laminated PVC plastic cards. Styrene cards are going to
be a little more expensive, but have a closer look and feel to PVC cards.
Unfortunately, since they usually are not laminated, they don't have that nice
shiny look and feel like laminated PVC cards do.
If your
answer is loyalty cards, you better stick with laminated PVC. Not only do they
look the best, but they also have the durability you need for a loyalty card.
It will keep looking nice in your patron's wallet or purse swipe after swipe
after swipe for years to come. UV (ultra-violet) coated cards and styrene cards
can look pretty nasty in a short time since they are not protected with a
laminate. But it's not just the lamination that counts. It's what's inside too.
For example, paper core cards, while laminated, still don't hold up and feel
anywhere near as good as laminated PVC cards. Their edges aren't as smooth and
they fray after repeated use. You can even pry apart the edges of the
lamination. And if you ever wanted to switch card processing vendors, laminated
paper core cards cannot be re-encoded like all other cards.
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