Mastercard customers will no longer be able to swipe their cards at the checkout under plans to phase them out to encourage safer methods such as contactless and fingerprint payments.
The card issuer said from 2024, banks in the UK and Europe would no longer issue the outdated cards with a view to them leaving circulation completely by 2033.
The UK moved to chip-and-pin for all card payments in 2006, but in the US, some magnetic strip systems are still in use.
Mastercard says chip-and-pin and new biometric cards that use fingerprints, offer greater security. It also follows a rise in contactless technology which now accounts for the majority of transactions in the UK.
Mastercard cyber & intelligence president, Ajay Bhalla, said: "It’s time to fully embrace these best-in-class capabilities, which ensure consumers can pay simply, swiftly and with peace of mind.
"What’s best for consumers is what’s best for everyone in the ecosystem."
The slow phasing out is to leave what the firm calls a "long runway" for companies accepting payments to move to chip-and-pin and tighter security methods.
Magnetic strips were introduced in the 1960s to create identity cards for CIA staff.
Forrest Parry, one of its engineers, had the idea of sticking information encoded on a strip of magnetic tape to a plastic card, but was struggling to join the two together.
His wife, Dorothea Parry, came up with the idea of using heat to join tape to card, initially with the iron she was using at the time.
The magnetic stripe, today also called swipe card or magstripe, is read by swiping past a magnetic reading head on a card reader.
Contactless payments which can be made using card or smartphone increased by more than one billion in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020.
In his Budget this year, the Chancellor confirmed the single transaction limit will rise to £100 later this year.
Rishi Sunak said the pandemic has accelerated a move away from cash, with shoppers often being encouraged to use contactless in many stores for public health reasons.
It has been less than a year since the limit was raised from £30 to £45.
American Express and Visa have also been approached for comment.
