Patent ID: 7761332

Claim:
A method of conducting a transaction, comprising: a) providing a transaction card system having, i) a transaction card with a display tag for displaying short term information, the character display having optical states that are stable without power and viewable from one side of the display tag, the display tag also including an array of electrical contacts for electrically addressing the character display from the other side of the tag, the array of contacts being directly connected to the character display via conductive traces, a contact window through which the contacts are accessible, means for providing machine readable data on the card, and long term information printed on the transaction card; ii) a transaction card writer having a reader for reading the machine readable data and means for updating the short term information displayed on the transaction card; and iii) a central computer connected to the transaction card writer having a data base and central processor for receiving the data read by the reader and generating display commands for the transaction card writer; and b) conducting a transaction using the transaction card system, by reading the machine readable data on the transaction card in the transaction card writer to retrieve information relating to a transaction privilege and updating the short term information on the transaction card based on specifics of the transaction and the transaction privilege.