Patent ID: 6857563

Claim:
A transaction card system, said system comprising: a host; a drone card having drone memory; said host being adapted to physically receive a portion of said drone card during a data transfer operation from said host to said drone card; said host having: a host memory configured to store account information regarding at least one transaction card; an output circuit configured to generate an electronically readable identifier corresponding to said at least one transaction card stored in said memory; a user input device configured to select a transaction card stored in said memory; a processor operatively coupled to said memory, output circuit and said user input device, wherein said output circuit generates a readable identifier responsive to input received from said user input device; and wherein said readable identifier includes an automatically generated security code that is transferred to said drone card and is capable of being transmitted to a remote computer to authenticate a transaction, said security code being a randomly changing code pattern which is known by said host and said remote computer.