A financial and identification card transaction system for protecting transactions between a plurality of cardholders, each having a card, with a machine-readable code imprinted thereon and a card-issuing organization via at least one transaction site connected by a data channel with a remote transaction center, the system which comprises: a card reader disposed at the transaction site for reading the machine-readable code imprinted on the card, the machine readable code including a cardholder code that is unique to each cardholder; a transaction number that uniquely identifies each transaction; a transaction number store included with the card reader for receiving and storing the transaction number from the transaction center; a transaction data input device connected to the card reader for receiving transaction data; a printer connected to the card reader for printing a transaction ticket which includes the transaction number; a center computer disposed at the transaction center having memory for storing transaction data received from the card reader via the data channel; a transaction number generator included with the center computer for generating the transaction number. view more