Nuvi 3597 and hotel key cards

I don't have one yet, but good info for the future.

I had the same thing happen to me except the culprit turned out to be my Fenix GPS watch!
The EMF of any operating electronic device has the potential to erase the mag strip of a hotel key card if held close enough.

I have had a lot of hotel-key trouble like this, too.

My GPS may have at times been with me when I had this trouble, but the GPS was most likely in a carry-on type bag, while my room-key would have been in my pocket. The chances of near contact do not seem very likely to me. What does seem a lot more likely to me, would be the chance that my cell phone and my card-key could have wound up in the same pocket together, at times.

I do not have a smart-phone. I have a dumb-phone.

--So... I ask the forum, could a dumb-phone [cell phone] cause this kind of trouble with a hotel card-key?

Yes, when I went to the front desk today to have the card "fixed" they mentioned that it happens all the time and usually it's the card being placed near any cell phone that is causing the problem.

I have not seen this happen as I don't carry a cell phone in my pocket.

Thanks for the great tip/reminder, and sorry for your troubles!

It doesn't take a lot of electrical energy to disrupt a magnetic strip. Your dumb cell phone may or may not cause the problem with it just being on. The chances of it causing problems go up astronomically if it tries to ring or you try doing a call using Bluetooth. Those hotel key cards also don't have the data written as strongly as a bank card or other credit card as they have to be erased and reused as many times as they are.

Some additional info on this issue.

http://tinyurl.com/kbbe8k8

The other cause is maily the cellphone as i had the same issue where my iphone was together with the key card. So it may be the emission from the electronics such as phones, GPS that will demagnitize the hotel cards.

Something like that happened to me with a magnetic mount and a portable disk drive. I placed it all in a carry on bag and realized too late that they may have come into contact. Needless to say, they did. Luckily the files were a backup.

It worries me when businesses send or give you a business size card that is also magnetic. I am sure that some folks will put it in their wallet without thinking, only to find that it wiped out several magnetic strip cards.

Rob

Thanks for the information

My tablet has a cover with a magnet, when it closes it turns the tablet off and the tablet will come back on when opened. Will this cause a problem with key cards?

So far it has not caused a problem with my tablet.

Not unless the key card is placed next to the magnet.

iPod headset too. Don't underestimate the tiny headsets. Their magnets can wipe off keycard info. Happens to me once or twice. How did I find out? My key works fine but my wife's can't unlock our room. I ask her where she puts it. In the purse, next to the headset.

I will always try to put my key card in my wallet.

Same here that I do not lock myself out.

I try and do the same. Had a similar incident happen to me once from some other magnetic source. Found myself at the front desk a few times on that trip. Quite annoying.

It is good news for those with less travel experience. If that happens to you, you don`t have to get mad at the hotel clerk.