Mechanism to allow the use of disposable cards on a system designed to accept cards conforming to the standards of the global payments industry

A terminal assembly associated with a physical access point, said terminal assembly comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• at least one processor, coupled to said memory, and operative to:
• obtain, at said terminal assembly associated with said physical access point, payment device data from a reduced-functionality payment device;
• identify said payment device data as emanating from said reduced-functionality payment device;
• responsive to said identifying, convert said payment device data emanating from said reduced-functionality payment device into one of an authorization request and an access request, said one of an authorization request and an access request being of a format consistent with full-functionality payment devices;
• and
• dispatch said one of an authorization request and an access request into a payment infrastructure which is configured to handle said one of an authorization request and an access request of said format consistent with said full-functionality payment devices, but is not configured to handle said reduced-functionality payment device.

An apparatus comprising:

• means for obtaining, at a terminal assembly associated with a physical access point, payment device data from a reduced-functionality payment device;
• means for identifying said payment device data as emanating from said reduced-functionality payment device;
• means, responsive to said identifying, for converting said payment device data emanating from said reduced-functionality payment device into one of an authorization request and an access request, said one of an authorization request and an access request being of a format consistent with full-functionality payment devices;
• and
• means for dispatching said one of an authorization request and an access request into a payment infrastructure which is configured to handle said one of an authorization request and an access request of said format consistent with said full-functionality payment devices, but is not configured to handle said reduced-functionality payment device