A cheque guarantee card normally guarantees cheques up to 50. The shop is only guaranteed to be paid when the shop assistant writes the card number on the back of the cheque. The shop assistant also has to check other things like the signature. Some cards only guarantee cheques but others have several uses and can be used as debit cards and for withdrawing money from cash machines. Chip cards Chip cards, also called smart cards, are a new type of plastic card which operate with a microchip rather than a magnetic stripe.
Chip cards are still in development.
Soon, however, the information stored in the chip will be anything from money in an electronic form to personal ID like your passport number or date of birth and details of organisations you might be a member of like a sports club or an insurance firm. Cirrus Cirrus is a network of cash machines which are part of the MasterCard system. If you have a card with the Cirrus sign on it you can take out cash from ATMs around the world which display both the Cirrus and MasterCard signs. The cash is given out in the local currency and debited to your account in pounds. A company card is a credit or charge card issued to companies and used by named employees.