Wednesday, March 16, 2011

How to Replace Your Wallet with Your Phone

How to Replace Your Wallet with Your 
Phone 

If you like your wallet, by all means, hold onto it. But if you'd like to travel lighter and worry about one less thing to remember, you can put replace most of your wallet's functionality with your phone. Here's how to switch over everything except your cash, and maybe one card.
Image via visualpun.ch.
There are already great, convenient things your phone can do to stand in for your wallet, but the future looks even better. Near Field Communication technology (NFC), built into at least one Android phone and more to come, will eventually allow your phone to handle wallet replacement even better. In the meantime, you can consolidate your membership cards, hold sensitive scraps of paper, carry photos of your loves ones, and even make money change hands, all from your phone. Here's how to slim down or entirely cast off your back-pocket leather shackles.
Some stores make their membership cards mandatory, or make items nearly unaffordable if you aren't using their member cards. Rather than stuff them in your wallet or clutter your key chain, load them into an app that recreates them on your screen.
We like Key Ring for this job (available for Android, iOS, and WP7). Scan in your cards' bar codes, or type in the UPC numbers if the card is too weathered. Key Ring lists and quick-sorts your cards, which show up in a big way on your screen. You can also see coupons and discounts found for the store you're pulling up from another tab.
You might be put off by the idea of showing your phone to a clerk, or scanning it yourself. Having tried it a few times, in both (relatively old-school) Buffalo, NY, and (definitely more wired) Austin, TX, it's not as awkward as you might think—or at least just as awkward as fumbling in your wallet and trying to forcibly pry a card from a snug pocket. The key is having your rewards screen pulled up before you're at the front of a line, just as you should do with a physical card.

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