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A pay card is a card, in most cases, a chipcard, or sometimes a hole card, or just a paper with several fields. These are used at a nightclub to charge drinks, wardrobe, or almost anything. To mark them, the waitresses use chip card writers (for chipcards), special pliers (for hole cards) or just waterproofed pencils (for paper cards).

When leaving the nightclub, the patron remits their pay card, where it is automatically decoded, and the required payment is displayed on the checkout box. The pay card is most often the property of the nightclub and stays in the cashbox for future use.

Pay cards cannot be collected easily. If someone tries to do so by hiding them in the pocket, he has to pay the maximum price possible on the paycard; this is also required in case of loss.

Using paycards in nightclubs makes the staffs' jobs easier. They do not have to carry change. Furthermore, people are encouraged to drink more, because it is more difficult for them to find out how much money they've spent.

At nightclubs using paycards, there are often long queues at the exit, especially when the club closes and it is crowded. Paycards can be damaged under some circumstances; for example at foam parties or at some wild dances, which does not allow the club to determine the correct value of money spent in the club.

Some kinds of paycards can be manipulated illegally by the patron or, as in the case of small cards, with cardfields for bingo cards.

Further, there is the danger that someone can order drinks and leaves the nightclub through an emergency exit, so emergency exits in such clubs should be safeguarded by alarms. Nevertheless, the danger that the owner of the club locks the emergency exits illegally is much greater than at those clubs not using pay cards.^{[citation needed]}

The usage of pay cards is common in many larger night clubs and superclubs. However not all use them.