As known to the person of the art, the use of a magnetic stripe or a microchip for storing information required for the execution of applications on a small-sized physical medium was proposed very long ago. As a result, depending on the country or even the applications in consideration, the choice of the type of storage can vary, which is problematic when a user encounters a card reader that is not adapted for the type of storage of their card and/or if their card is not adapted for the relevant application.
One of the aforementioned problems can be overcome by fitting the card with both a microchip and a magnetic stripe in which the information required for executing an application is stored redundantly. Another aforementioned problem can be overcome if the card is equipped with selection means allowing the user to select one out of several possible applications, and thus to configure it via its control means for exclusive use for that selected application.
Without such selection means, some cards cannot be configurable, which forces their users to have several cards, dedicated respectively to different applications. For example, in the field of bank cards, some users are forced to have one card dedicated to credit, one card dedicated to debit and one card dedicated to prepayment.
Reconfigurable cards with two types of storage are then particularly useful. However, each card configuration resulting from the selection of an application necessitates the parallel powering of the microchip, the action means, the control means and the selection means, which consumes a lot of power. The microchip of the card must be powered to control the configuration of the magnetic stripe, but the power consumption makes it impossible to configure the application, that is to say both the microchip and the magnetic stripe. That would not be a problem if the selection of an application, and thus the configuration, were to be carried out after the card is inserted in a reader that can supply it with electrical power. Unfortunately, the magnetic stripe can only be selected and configured before the card is inserted in a reader and thus exclusively with the quantity of power that is stored in the battery, which is known to be insufficient for operating the system for updating the magnetic stripe and powering the microchip.