Which card type is commonly associated with high-volume applications like parking lots and is described as inexpensive?

• A. Magnetic stripe
• B. Barium Ferrite
• C. Smart card
• D. Proximity card

Answer: (B)

Low-cost, high-volume access credentials rely on a simple, widely supported technology: magnetic stripe cards. Among magnetic media, barium ferrite is a common, inexpensive magnetic material used for the stripes. It keeps production costs down while staying readable by standard magstripe readers, which is ideal for busy facilities like parking lots where thousands of cards may be issued or read daily. In contrast, proximity and smart cards involve embedded electronics or RFID, adding cost and complexity that isn’t needed for such large-scale, low-cost applications. So the material described as inexpensive and linked to high-volume use is barium ferrite.