[kevincrane]

Out of curiosity, what do you do that requires 16 cards on a regular basis? At some point, the limiting factor of how many cards you can carry becomes your pant pocket (or purse). My jeans wouldn't stand more than a few cards and far less than 30.

[taude]

Here's my list:

* Costco membership card

* three loyalty shopper cards for my common stores (I need the physical card because none of the apps I've tried using that scan the bar codes work with store scanners)

* a card to pay for my train rides,

* bank debit card for ATMS

* business credit card

* personal credit card

* medical insurance card (this one would be easy to just use a photo of)

* AAA card (would be easy to use photo of)

* Zip Car Card

* Bus pass card for corporate shuttle

* Airlines MVP card (likely easy to just use a photo of, I think....though I'm not sure about speedy checkin).

* Access card for corporate office.

* Drivers license

I have about 25 other cards that I keep at home, like Library, more shopper perks cards (usually because they can lookup by my email address in store), etc..

This doesn't really help my wallet situation that much.

[taude]

It's pretty funny, because all of these except a couple (which I noted) are pretty necessary and no work around. It's like people commenting to this thread didn't even read what I originally wrote. Anyway, I'm adding here a list of more cards that stay at home that I occasionally use.

Also, I could elaborate more on why certain cards need to be with me, but I thought things like Costo & Zip Car were pretty obvious.

So the list of home cards:

* MTA Metro Card for when I'm in NYC.

* USA Cycling license for racing (they have an app now that I can use when I show up at races)

* Best Buy Rewards card (I know, I know....but they can look up by my email)

* Several complimentary coffee cards for Peet's coffee (Yeup, they are useless to me at home, but I got tired of carrying them around)

* Borders Reward card (ooops, looks like I haven't cleaned out my home stack in awhile)

* Amtrak rewards card (just need the number and website has this remembered)

* Local Library card (they can use my driver's license, but I can't use the self checkout, which is OK becasue the line isn't ever long and I don't use often enough)

* Library Card for the bigger city by me

* NSSA Press Credentials (only needed when attending certain sporting events - I grab this one as necessary)

* APIS Press Credentials (same as above)

* Bike Club Membership card (provides discounts at local stores, but they know me and I don't need it anymore)

* Panera card (I think I needed this at one time to access Wi-Fi or something)

* Card for my season ski tune & discount (though customized, I think they just look me up in the computer or remember my face)

* Season pass card to get into a apre-ski venue for free

* AMC Entertainment gift card (I go to the movies once/year, and everytime I forget to bring this thing)

* Safeway Card (only useful when I'm on the West Coast grocery shopping. I've since learned to use my Brother's phone number)

* EFTA racing license for mountain bike race series around here in the summer time.

* NEMBA Membership card (mountain bike related)

* Gift Card to another coffee shop

* Home Depot Gift card (exact credit card shape and size)

So, as you can see, I've optimized a good chunk out of my wallet , but it's not all the way there. Though a couple of my cards "could go" there's still about 12 or 13 essential cards I must carry with me.

[shanselman]

I use Lemon Wallet and took photos of everything here that's NOT a credit card. I carry three cards. Drivers License, and two credit cards.

Soon to be one.

[taude]

That Lemon Wallet app looks really nice. I'm going to give it a go... I've tired some others, but didn't like them.

Also, I was a user of both Belly and Level Up for awhile. But the merchants around here have been finicky with the services and some of the shops I frequent stopped using them.

[bane]

Don't know if your personal card is an Amex or not, but my Amex is a Costco Amex and doubles as my membership card.

I'm surprised your loyalty cards aren't the smaller key ring ones. I have half a dozen on my keys and barely notice them.

I leave my AAA and Airline cards at home and pull them out when I need them for trips. Could probably do the same for your Zip Car card (unless you use the service multiple times a week or something) and other rarely used cards.

Last year my medical insurance company switched to paper cards which are much thinner and easier to deal with even if they're less sturdy. Same as my car insurance.

All that being said I still walk around with about a dozen cards in my wallet, so I can definitely sympathize. But I could probably edit out 3 or 4 right now and not really miss them.

[lambda]

The problem is any time you edit some of them out, you realize soon after that you don't have the one you need. If I don't carry around the cards I will need every day, I am likely to forget to take the ones I need only occasionally when I do need them.

The problem is that Coin doesn't really solve this. It only encodes credit cards; most of the other cards either don't have mag stripes or require other information on the cards than just what's on the mag stripe.

[bane]

That happens to me all the time with my airline club cards. I always get to the airport and realize I forgot them.

[taude]

Ironically, I think my AAA card could double as a AMEX. But I don't use it for that.

I do have a lot of the shopper cards available on key. But I run uber-light on my keys and shifting cards from one pocket to another doesn't really help me gain anything. Also, with the key-ring versions, I've shared them with my S.O. so we can keep all our groceries and loyalty points together so they add up faster for household items or discounted gas, etc...

The problem with leaving a card like Zip Card at home is I'm inevitably going to be somewhere that's not home and need a Zip Car.

[artrlee]

I managed to cut down the bulk in my wallet by 3 cards by photocopying the barcode side of my loyalty cards and sticky taping them to other cards which don't need to be swiped (nfc based transport card, nfc based car share card)

[taude]

Ooooh....this low-tech idea is very good. I've often wanted to create a single card (same shape and size of credit card) that I could print my essentials on so they could be scanned by a red laser scanner.

[giarc]

Could you not keep your costco card in your car, or at home and just bring it when you need it? Same with your airline cards?

[taude]

I don't currently have a car, so my ability to go to Costco is usually a very impromptu thing.

[daemin]

So far I can recommend a wallet from SaddleBack leather. solid construction and it does get soft after half a year of use.

Though because of the size I keep mine in my front pocket, also handy as I believe it lessens the chance of having it pick-pocketed.

[HelloMcFly]

Re: Loyalty cards - you can almost always just enter your phone number at merchants. I've encountered no exceptions to this, but I'm sure they exist.

[taude]

That's why the majority of them stay at home. For some reason, the grocery stores, when doing self-checkout and such, don't have email input or phone number. :(

EDIT: I should add that the main grocery store I shop at, you scan your card when you enter and are given a wand to checkout your groceries as you add them to the bag.

[dsl]

This isn't going to work for your zipcar card, access card for your office, and possibly your bus pass.

[nawitus]

Couldn't you get a combined debit and credit card?

[taude]

I have an airlines reward card, a business card, and an ATM card. I don't think there's a way to combine the airlines reward with the ATM, even though they are from the same bank.

[jhandl]

I carry two government-issued ids; one driver's license; two medical ids; three credit cards, two debit cards and two coordinate cards (two-factor auth) related to three bank accounts; my mother's two debit cards and one medical id (she's elderly and I take care af all her needs); and one medical emergency info card. That's 16. Membership and discount cards are the non-essential ones.

I do have all of those cards scanned and stored in dropbox with 1password, but I don't have good 3g coverage so I carry them just in case.

I carry my fat wallet in a fanny pack. Not very elegant, but incredibly practical.