A woman in a café swipes her credit card in a portable card reader.

How to Swipe Your Credit Card

4 min read

Last Updated: August 13, 2025

Table of contents

Key Takeaways

Position your credit card’s magnetic strip facing toward the card reader.
Move your card quickly through the card reader’s slot from top to bottom.
When swiping a credit card at a gas pump, use the instructional image next to the card reader.

How to swipe a credit card may seem pretty obvious to many credit card users. But if you’ve always tapped or inserted your card, you may not know exactly how to swipe.

Let’s review the proper way to swipe your credit card when making purchases and buying gas at the pump.

How to swipe your credit card correctly

When paying by card at a store or restaurant, there’s often a payment terminal that faces the customer. To swipe your credit card correctly, follow these steps:

Put the side of your card with the magnetic strip in the card reader’s slot. The strip should be facing toward the card reader. If the card reader lies flat, keep the magnetic strip facing down. The front of the card will face up, towards you.
Quickly move the magnetic strip through the card reader’s slot from top to bottom.

A card reader lets you make a credit card payment without giving your card to the cashier. If you don’t have access to the card reader, you’ll need to hand your card over.

That’s all there is to it. You should hear a sound or see a message saying that your credit card transaction has been completed.

The process is very similar for a debit card, but you may have to enter your PIN after you swipe. Sometimes you can swipe a gift card this way, too.

Wrong ways to swipe your credit card

Credit card swiping is simple, but there are wrong ways to do it. If you swipe incorrectly, the card reader may make a beeping noise indicating it couldn’t read the card. If it does, you’ll need to try again. Here are some things to keep in mind:

Don’t face the magnetic strip away from the card reader when swiping.
Don’t face the magnetic strip up in the card reader.
Don’t swipe too slowly or stop and continue.

How to swipe a credit card at a gas pump

For drivers, paying at the gas pump is a convenient way to fill up without going into the gas station. Most gas pumps have a card reader, but they may look different than one you might find at a retail or grocery store.

Gas pump card readers have a small picture next to them showing you how to swipe or insert your credit card. Position your magnetic strip as indicated by the picture, then swipe or insert as shown.

Other ways to use your credit card

Most credit cards today have alternative ways to use them when making a purchase at a store. Along with the magnetic strip on the back of the card, credit cards may be chip-enabled and have an EMV chip on the front of the credit card.

In addition to being a convenient payment method, EMV chip cards can add an extra layer of fraud protection when used at chip-enabled card readers. The chip creates unique transaction data when you use your card at chip-enabled terminals in stores and at chip-enabled ATMs.

An EMV chip has two different ways to complete a transaction.

The first is to insert your card, chip end first, into a machine. You’ll leave your card inserted while the machine reads your data and only remove your card when the machine asks you to remove it.

The second is to tap the chip on a reader for a contactless payment. If a merchant isn't chip-ready, you can still swipe it to complete your card transaction.

Did you know?

Discover credit cards offer benefits that may match your financial needs. With Discover, you earn rewards on all purchases every time you use your card—automatically.

Learn More

If you have a mobile device that includes a mobile wallet, you can add your credit or debit card to the wallet. Then, to make a mobile payment, just select the card and tap your phone where you would tap any regular chip card.

The bottom line

Using a credit card can offer convenience when paying for items or going out to eat. Now that you know how to use a credit card correctly, you can go and enjoy the benefits your credit card has to offer.

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