Gift or loyalty cards...questions

[coincarwash.ca]

I was getting ready to order 500 loyalty cards for my SS wash and was wondering if it is best to buy them from a supplier who encodes them.
It is costing me about one dollar each card for full colour printing on the front and black print on the back with an 8 digit sequential number encoded on the magnetic bar strip.
Can I encode them myself and print them somehow?
what do you do and where do you get them...price?
I really like the plastic ones that look like credit cards.


Thanks

 

[soapy]

What system will you be using them with? It might make a difference.

 

[coincarwash.ca]

exacta system

 

[ninspeed]

Exacta will give you a bulk discount if you buy more than that... $1/card seems a little high from them... mind you i dont pay any shipping. You will go through 500 cards in no time once it catches on. I use an average of 50 cards a week for my prepaid sales (from 12-20% off ) then fleet accounts eat up a lot as well... If only the guys would call back about the 2mb upgrade so i can have 4000 accounts vs 2000

 

[E.Joramo]

How well do the fleet cards work. And does the fleet card system print out invoices or do they have to be done manually? (we had Washgear that would print out the invoices along with Usage and whatnot ,now we have Points to Partners and we have to manually write/type up invoices for usage.)
Erik

 

[Jeff_L]

Erik,

Why did you switch from WashGear to Points to Partners? Just curious.

 

[E.Joramo]

When the Owner (my boss) upgraded the equipment from D&S and Hamilton we couldn't keep the Washgear since the DS-Net and the DAN system controlled the new Equipment. They told him there was a fleet card system available but they didn't tell us that we would have to do it all manually.
Erik

 

[Ben's Car Wash]

That's cheap. I think the cards for the DRB systems are $1.50-$1.75@!