Bonus Card Barcode Hack

I got sick and tired of having a dozen little "bonus" cards to carry around, so I made this simple fix. Basically, I just scanned in all my barcodes, fit them nicely into a row in photoshop and then printed them out onto a card. There are more detailed instructions that follow if you need them. This page shows the finished product.

Step 1 Scan your barcodes

Get all the cards you have with barcodes, line them up on a scanner and scan into the computer. I used grocery store bonus cards, gas station card, bookstore bonus card, library card, and student ID (of course I blurred them for this instructable just to be safe).

Comments

[h8864]

that's illegal. it says near every barcode not to duplicate
it.

[drmci1]

Doesn't work with my windoze phone---think the screen is too reflective and scatters the laser, I think...maybe a screen protector would help? Anyone with experience?

[jeff_1868]

Someone has come up with an online service. Simply, go to http://www.justoneclubcard.com/ and enter in the barcode numbers for 8 of your club cards. The service generates a card, front & back, with the barcodes for those 8 cards. It's free and you can create as many as you would like. If you cannot find a store listed, just e-mail him photocopies of your card & he will add it to the service.

[skolsox]

That could be a scam watch out. It sounds way too good to be true

[Ernest12]

Do for yourself, is the basic fundamental security element that Americans need to learn to cut down on fraud.

[Antrozous]

I recommend you consider your security/privacy risk when using justonceclubcard.com. There is a lot of data that could be "attached" to your barcodes, such as your address, checking info. etc. Please understand that this info is not in the barcode but in whatever system the "club" uses when it scans your barcode. I would fire, on the spot, ANY employee that accepted the cards you are using. How do they know you just didn't copy someone else's bc? The card or fob that was issued should serve as an authentic id for the club. If the stores that handed out these cards were more privacy conscious they would hand out cards with blockers over the bc's. Unfortunately this is a more expensive option when they purchase the cards. This will all be moot with the advent of RFID.

[Joebob]

And I would never shop at your business again, if I found out that you fired an employee for this reason.

[Frankie Pintado]

That's probably why no one has EVER checked my ID when using a "club card".

In fact, no one has ever carded me WHILE OBTAINING a "club card".

So if it worries you that much, just fill it out with bogus information. I know I do.

And BTW, I can get your address by reading the big numbers on the front of your house.

[Taranach]

As others have already stated, what a foolish and uninformed idea. I am further concerned over the naivete you display as far as RFID... You do realize that RFID tags can be read at a distance and duplicated with relative ease... just look at all the instructables out there to do just that. They are already selling wallets deliberately made to stop remote RFID tracking and/or copying. Surely your vaunted RFID is as prone if not moreso to the very problems you decry in your post. Perhaps a little more research and a little less vitriol is in order.

[legless]

Maybe some RFID chips can be easily read at a "distance" but define a distance. The one in my cat can only be read if the scanner touches his fur/skin. It needs to be that close.

[Taranach]

That is true for some and skin is a poor conductor of the radio waves RFID uses however, many that are not shielded can be read up to several feet away. The readers are smaller than a paperback book. Now imagine standing at a street corner waiting for a light or a bus. One person could have an RFID reader and read several tags. Even standing in line at a grocery store. Most RFID tags in use are very simple and will give up their information easily. The ones that require a code to respond are both much more expensive and require specialized equipment to read. The expense for that security easily puts it outside of retail or public use and places it in the realm of high security installations.

Again, look at the facts and specifications, RFID is NOT a security panacea. Passive RFID (the most common) also can only hold a relatively small amount of data. The one in your cat only releases a ten digit number at most and is a registration number in an external database.Basically RFID is far less "secure" than bar codes.

[Hoodedcrow]

PS, want to add about comment about firing people who accept these. Does your company have self checkout machines, were the customer scans his own cards? If so, you going to fire the self checkout machine? It can't tell the barcode is on a fob? :)

[Hoodedcrow]

The real deal here, it would mess up buyer profiling for the company, i.e. If someone else uses the barcode, and my guess is, the real reason a company may not like this idea. This is the real value to the company, very valuable, you can sell it valuable. No one has ever carded me when using one, I find them in the parking lot, store floors. No expert on the subject, but, clear to me, you need access to the company's database for the barcode to be worth something, if you had that, you got the bar code info anyway, so moot point. You want to use my free barcodes, knock yourself out, you actions will hide my purchasing profile. Places like BJs where I pay for the card, has a picture on it. Yes, I get to pay to be profiled, nice...different story, I care about this one.

[edrandall]

Fortunately here in the UK people you are not able to fire an employee for such a petty reason, it would be unfair dismissal and you would lose the case at a tribunal and cost your company a bunch of money.

[SJU87]

I never carry my cards with me. Too many! What usually happens is I say, "Yeah, I never carry them, I have too many." At which point

1. If it is a discount card, the cashier scans a store card for me and I get the discount anyway.

2. If it is a club card, they look up my phone number or email address and I get the discount/points anyway.

3. I say, "Don't worry about it." and skip the discount/points.

This hack is cool. It beats the iPhone app which has trouble scanning and takes just as long to open and find the right card as looking up phone number/email. I will be making one this afternoon and start getting all my discounts/points.

[JesterRoyale]

A barcode doesn't hold anything but numbers. You know how there are a bunch of numbers ate the bottom of every barcode? That is the "human" barcode." The series of vertical lines is simply those numbers in "machine" language. Therefore, using a website such as justonceclubcard.com offers no risk of privacy as all they are doing is converting the human numbers into machine numbers. You could do the process yourself with a word processor if you have barcode function. Simply having the barcode of someone's point card would do nothing unless you have the system that recognizes said number as something important. You cannot take a made barcode for a supermarket, for example, scan it with any machine, and get a detailed description of their name, address, etc. That's crazy as that is not what a barcode is.

Awesome instructable idea! I too have far too many point cards so I will probably make use of this!

[Ressie]

Those numbers are tied to your club member account. If you have a preferred buyer account, or a club card that you PAID money for (BJ's, Sams Club, etc), then those websites can simply print out cards for themselves and use your discount. Also, some terrorist group might go out and buy a boat load of household items that can be combined to make bombs or what not, with your card, and guess who knocks on your door when flags start popping up?

Just because it's just numbers, doesn't mean it can't be tied to you, or something important. So people really need to be careful with what info they type into websites that they have no idea of who's running.

[andrej]

There is simply not enough free storage space to encode _any_ personal data into barcode. The only thing encoded is the user id.

[robbnwa]

I applaud your security minded-ness!! I work for an encryption company-- and I place the blame on the companies that just do NOT want to encrypt anyone's information because it's too much work, costs money, not enough punishment attached.
People have to protect themselves because the banks and stores that hold your data don't care until they have a breach or two ( I refer to you TJ Maxx) OR out law maker decide to put management in jail for trying to save a dollar instead!

[aqwiz]

Nahh it won't be moot with RFID, just that only hackers, and not everyday average tinkerers will have access to these methods, making their skills in high demand.

There's a few really cool barcode generator websites, where if you figure out the correct encoding type, you can simply type in your "member number" printed below the barcode, and come out with a perfect un-blurred printout of the barcode rather than a blurry photocopy, or scan. (you can also edit the text in the barcode, whatever the case it saves as an image, like jpg or gif. )

[legless]

Or use the appropriate barcode TTF fonts and print you own from your favourite WP / text editor.

[srilyk]

Considering the fact that you can go to the "Shack" and buy an RFID kit for $100, I think it's the other way 'round. Soon, except for the most complicated RFID setups, every 12 y/o in the country will be able to dupe award cards.

[RTourn]

Q: "How do you know you just didn't copy someone else's bc?" The same way you know the plastic card wasn't borrowed from someone else... They check the ID, they should. Enforce that, and this consolidated card will be fine.

[zootsuit7]

If the stores using those cards were privacy conscious, they wouldn't use any cards. The price on the shelf would be the same for everyone. Besides, how would you even know if I 'borrowed' someone else's original, store-issued card?! How can you tell if EVERYONE'S bc is really theirs?! I've even seen cashiers scan a 'generic' member card if I forgot mine. There are bigger problems with those silly cards than whether a copy of the number is being used! You'd fire someone just for letting someone use a copy?!

[BryceOwen]

I was looking at the list on justoneclubcard.com and, as far as I can determine, they only have club cards that don't retain personal info (with the possible exception of the BJ's Club card). Now, if there was an option for, say, Blockbuster or some other rental service, I'd be worried about potential theft. As it stands, worst case scenario is someone steals your grocery store card and racks up a whole bunch of points for you to redeem for free stuff.

[camiller]

Yes, but if you figure out what barcode type a card is using it is pretty easy to click the advanced view button which adds, to the bottom of the card type list, generic entries for all of the supported barcode types. Then you can create just about any barcode you want.

[angelabchua]

GENIUS!

[jumpfroggy]

Great idea! I've been meaning to do this for a while, since I hate how much bulk all those cards take. I've been too lazy, though.

I ended up finding an Android app "Key Ring" that does the same thing. I'll try it, see if their scanners can actually read the barcode. But this is such a useful thing, esp. since you can have one flat paper printout instead of many oddly shaped and thick plastic cards.

Thanks!

[domenicab]

Key Ring works great for me! Typically no issues working with scanners. And since I travel constantly, it's also handy to manually enter all my airline and hotel reward card numbers. Even sans barcode, it is a great storage program for all things reward/membership/club/etc. Hope it is useful to others as well!

[toxa]

hm, gonna try it too

[bpeacock]

I havent gotten Key Ring to work. Nice app but all of the stores, shoppers, scene, SPC card, library card, all dont work,

[laaha]

I've been having cards like that for some years now and I love it though the cashiers often look at me weirdly.

[avatar_i]

Don't forget that NEARLY all store that give out or require a discount card will put your phone number in the account: At Safeway, Giant, Petco, Petsmart, etc.. All I do is type in the "phone number" on record at the chackout screen and no need to cary any discount cards!

[monicamac]

As someone who worked for 4 years as a cashier at a store that used a discount card, I really beg people not to do this. This is a great hack that will save you wallet space while also saving the cashier from having to hold up lines to log into various systems in order to find your number. For most discount cards you can just copy the number on the front of the card or near the barcode, you don't need the barcode itself. Honestly, when there's a huge line up and someone says "I don't bring my cards, look me up in your system" it makes me furious.

[avatar_i]

Yea, but why copy several- if not a dozen or more- codes when your ONE phone number will work at every business where they have discount or club cards?
To date I 'belong' to NINE club/discount businesses, and all I ever need is my ONE phone number to access whatever dicounts are offered.
Is it not simpler- and faster- to just need to remember the ONE number that you aleardy have memorised, instead of needing to carry a card with many numbers, need to dig it out, unfold it, find the proper number, tope in THAT number... I would be done and gone in half the time.

[jblanke]

What they should do is sell universal cards, you could buy them for $1 anywhere. Then, you would take this card and register the barcode number on all of the different stores website, like ralphs.com, albertsons.com, etc.. Then you would need just the one card and scan it when you checkout. It's the same thing as giving them your phone number, exept it's not, and it's way faster.

For now, if you shop at ralphs, just ask the chashier for a club card and they will give it to you along with a registration form. Throw out the form and just use the card, unregistered. It's what I do, I still get points, and i can redeem them for 10 cents off a gal on gas once a month at ralphs gas station, or now at shell gas station.

[freakyqwerty]

Good idea!

[Chronos2187]

Another good way to consolidate those cards if you have an Android phone is the Key Ring App. It does the same thing but displays the barcode you select on your phone for the store to scan. The best part is it's free

[Yandle]

Here is a free web based bar code generator
http://www.barcoding.com/upc/

it does really great images in a few major formats

I worked out some of the Barcode Symbology codes for the bigger companies I carry cards from.

Safeway = UPC-A
PETSMART = UPC-A
KingSoopers (Kroger) = UPC-A
BestBuy Reward Zone card = Code 128

[Yandle]

Hell yes, awesome idea!