This paper presents a new real time and efficient method dedicated to automatically count plastic cards. It is based on state of the art signal processing techniques: matched filtering and higher-order statistics. This method is for upgrading the SQ45, an industrial system designed by DatacardGroup. Results show that using our new technique, the SQ45 can now count in real time new type of cards. This new functionality could reinforce the position of DatacardGroup as a world leader in this specific domain.