Doubt it...

I'm not an expert, but it probably has the hotel ID, room number, and a time window.  You could find the guests payment information if you had this data, AND had access to the reservation system.

I thought Penguins couldn't fly very far?

Quoted: Quoted: I thought Penguins couldn't fly very far? We have Travelocity accounts....

I use AAA?

So I've heard. I always keep mine and destroy them.
I thought that a PD, Ohio State Police perhaps, had put out an advisory.
Maybe it's just an urban legend, but hotels don't charge you for not reterning them, so I just cut them.

Doubt it. I would figure their computer system puts a random number on the card, and the door scanners send that random number to some server, which tells the door whether to unlock. The card might also contain just a code unique to that door and a time for when it works, but that would be too easy to hack and not very flexible - you might want to cancel a card early, or extend it, or cancel and issue a new one, which would be hard to do like that.

Either way, putting the credit card number on the cards just doesn't make much sense.

according to Snopes it is false!  just room information and number of nights for your stay...

Quoted: nope. all they conatin is the code to remotely unlock the door they are programmed for. Tell that idiot to buy more tin foil. mike

+1.  Cards only contain the information needed to unlock your room and get you in the outside doors.  

Quoted: Quoted: nope. all they conatin is the code to remotely unlock the door they are programmed for. Tell that idiot to buy more tin foil. mike +1.  Cards only contain the information needed to unlock your room and get you in the outside doors.

+2

No reason for the CC information to be there. None.

Snopes

I asked a person working the front desk at a major hotel chain about a year ago, and they said yes.  The same question at a different hotel revealed no.  Why take a chance? Destroy the card and you will have no worries.

They don't. They simply have the code to unlock the door. I ran a few that came home with me through a reader. Nothing even close to a CC# showed up on any of them.

I often pay cash, so what would they put on it then? $$$$$$$$$$$?

Quoted: Quoted: nope. all they conatin is the code to remotely unlock the door they are programmed for. Tell that idiot to buy more tin foil. mike +1.  Cards only contain the information needed to unlock your room and get you in the outside doors.

Yup...and if you're really paranoid, just run a magnet over the strip before turning the card in...

Its set to unlock the door for a few days or however long they set it for.

Normally when you turn them in they whipe then, then they go back in the pile to be reprogrammed.

A magnet will normally wipe them also.

Some gun writer got pissed at a hotel for some stupid reason, now he's getting back at all of them by conning people into cutting up room keys.

The cards used at hotels for rooms, as well as those used by your restuarant server to access the register/ordering system at places like Bennigans have the ability to be re-encoded with other information.  

There was a scam that was popular a few years ago known as "white plastic fraud".  Bad guys would get your credit card information and re-encode an old hotel card with the data.  Then use the data to charge items or obtain cash via an ATM. The cards would also often be embossed with the credit car number, card holders name and expiration date, so crooked merchants could provide imprinted receipts to "show" that the card was actually presented at their establishment, if they couldn't get encoded cards.  Encoding machines are can be programmed to put serveral bits of information on the mag strip on the card.  The more common way for people to get the encoded information from an unsuspecting consumer is to "skim" the card.  Usually a less than honest employee of a bar or restuarant will have a small reading device that can store X amount of credit card numbers and other codes to make the cards work. They will then sell or provide the information to another person who will download the information into a computer connected to an encoding device and then encode new counterfiet cards.  

The good thing is that there are lots of security features to credit cards and they are getting better at detecting fraud. The bad thing is we as good customers have to pay for it in the way of higher interest rates and fees.  

Urban legend.

Myth.

Etc.

It's an number generated by an RNG when they code the card for your visit.