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From: monty@sunne.east.sun.com (Monty Solomon - Temp Consultant)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
Message-ID: <12368@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 19 Sep 90 09:19:46 GMT
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[Moderator's Note: Mr. Solomon kindly passed along this message which
appeared recently in misc.consumers.   PAT]

  From: miller@mali (Ross M. Miller)
  Newsgroups: misc.consumers
  Subject: AT&T Universal Card is not two cards in one
  Date: 17 Sep 90 21:19:57 GMT
  Reply-To: millerrm@crd.ge.com (Ross M. Miller)
  Organization: General Electric R&D Center

In case any of you are under the impression (created by AT&T) that the
AT&T Universal Card is both a bankcard and AT&T Credit/Calling Card in
one, I have an interesting story for you.  On a recent trip, I tried
to use my new Universal Card in an AT&T credit card payphone by
inserting it into the credit card slot.  The payphone immediately
rejected it as not being an AT&T credit card.  Upon returning from my
trip I calling AT&T and asked why the card would not work in their
payphone and learned an interesting fact about the AT&T Universal
Card.

The fact: The AT&T Universal Card is simply a bankcard (VISA or
Mastercard) with an AT&T credit card number embossed onto it.  The
magnetic stripe on the back of the card indicates that the card is
only a bankcard and contains no information about the AT&T credit
card.  Hence, when run though a payphone (or any other device that
reads the stripe), it is treated as a bankcard.

This "feature" has two "gotchas":

1.  As noted, standard AT&T credit card payphones will not read it.
To charge calls you need to enter your credit card number manually.

2.  In payphones that accept multiple types of cards, the card is
treated as a bankcard, not an AT&T credit card.  According to what
AT&T told me this means that the 10% discount DOES NOT APPLY to calls
made in this manner.

Apparently, modern credit card technology cannot yet deal with
magnetic stripes that contain "dual" identities, and so, some of the
potential convenience of a combined bankcard/phonecard is, for now,
lost.


Ross Miller
GE R&D Center
millerrm@crd.ge.com