“One card to rule them all”
By just having personal accounts with 2 banks, both offering debit Maestro cards, Master cards, Visa credit cards it already makes my wallet a tad bulky when carrying all those cards with me.
Add three more companies having multi-currency accounts, add a splash of fin-tech startups (all having their own cards), remittance services, e-money cards, some crypto coin cards and not to forget all other smartcards, like the one for public transport, customer loyalty cards, frequent flyer cards, etc..
The past few years I’ve been trying wallet after wallet, in search of the ‘holy grail’ that would hold a maximum number of cards while keeping a slim form.
..Forget it…
If I wanted to drag along all my cards the pile would look something like this:
I’m already a happy user of the Cards App (http://cards.app/). A pretty cool app that, for example, can also copy your hotel access card so you can use your phone to open your room.
But having all my cards inside my phone combined with a drained battery would be bad news. A very fragile single point of failure..
Curve doesn’t (yet?) support non-payment cards. Also Maestro (which in this part of the world is the norm, forget about paying in the supermarket with Visa or Mastercard..)
But after linking all compatible cards, the pile should be reduced by at least 75%!
The great thing is you still have a tangible plastic card you can use to pay, with or without a phone. You can even ‘go back in time’ and change a different card to pay for that something you just bought.. Handy!
My Curve card arrived in a funky black envelope holding a classy drawer style packing for the card itself.
Sure beats most cards being sent attached to a piece of paper with some sort of chewing gum…
The app is pretty straightforward. Either scan (photograph) the card, read the NFC/MIFARE chip or input the info manually. Sometimes they will charge a small amount as a method of verification.
Still, I have a lot of the stack of cards to input, but the thought of finally being able to use that super-slim fashionable Italian leather wallet is good motivation ;)
Great innovative product! Check out https://www.curve.app/ for all info, types of cards, and all advantages they offer (some depend on your location).
