This is my opinion and is not a promoted post in any way, shape or form.
I don’t know about you, but one of the things that drives me crazy is the abundance of loyalty programs, affinity cards, keychain fobs, etc. I have collected over time. I’ve tried various things to try to manage this mess including:
- A larger wallet. Unfortunately, this effects my ability to choose a smaller purse, especially when travelling.
- A Card Wheel from Real Simple, to keep all the cards in one sub-wallet. this failed, not because it wasn’t a good idea and potential solution, but there’s not enough space, even when putting two cards in each slot. Also, the plastic sticks to many cards, making them very hard to remove when needed.)
- A separate and detachable keyring. (Not bad, but those little pieces of plastic still tend to break and fall off your keyring over time, and if you switch cars and keys for the day and forget to take the special keyring, you are out of luck.
- A baggie with all the cards in it. Okay, but disorganized.
- Several apps, including cardstar and others. The first generation of these apps were useless, and I stopped using them. Looking at the newer version of Cardstar, it may be much better than before.
- The new Passport application for the iPhone seems promising, but it does not work with all the cards, and often requires that you download another app in order to integrate it. Not good enough.
I finally happened upon a new app I love- Lemon Wallet. It’s secure, with password protection . In no time, all you have to do is take a picture of your cards, front and back, and it will organize them for you in a virtual wallet. You can add some information about them, change the name, and more. They even have a lost wallet feature so in case you lose your actual wallet, they will help contact all these folks and get you new cards.
Within a few minutes, I had a three inch pile of loyalty cards, membership cards, and more, all photographed and stored. No more worrying about not having the card with me, or needing things like my insurance information and not sure which purse or wallet this card is in. You can even add financial cards along with monitoring and protection, but I’m not sure I want to go there yet. (I’m fairly paranoid about my financial information across the board). They also have a feature where you can add receipts as well, which I think will be handy in tracking business expenses over the course of the year.
Despite the fact that this sounds like a commercial, it’s not and I am in no way affiliated with Lemon Wallet. I just finally found something that works for me, especially when it comes to managing cards between people in our house. We no longer have to worry about who has the hotel rewards card, or the movie points card- we both have it, and don;t even have to worry about the plastic. We can show the card to anyone in the store, and they can scan the bar code or input the numbers- no more looking me up because I can’t find my card anymore.
What app makes your life simple? Have you found anything like Lemon Wallet that really helps a persistant annoyance? I’d love to try your suggestions!