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Comment by RandallBrown | Hacker News Reader

From the looks of it, it will handle rewards cards and whatnot just fine. If I could just store my Qdoba, Panera, Gameworks, Dave and Busters, REI, Best Buy, Safeway, Kroger, etc. cards on one single card.

Now I can keep as many rewards cards as I want, without having to stuff my wallet full of junk I don't need 99% of the time.

The money I save from rewards cards I wouldn't normally carry would probably pay for the price of a Coin, even if I don't use it for any of my credit or debit cards.

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Every rewards card I have is a scanned barcode, not a mag swipe.

I have a mix of both TBH. So you'd still have to carry the rewards cards that don't have a magstripe!

Same here. Speaking of which, surely someone has written a phone app that will scan and display all your barcoded cards on demand?

Google Wallet, Apple Passbook, and a number of other apps will let you do this. Scanning from a phone screen is not perfect though.

Lemon wallet will do this - though I've had very mixed success using it, with barcode readers.

There's an app called Key Ring that I've used for some time that accomplishes exactly this. It works quite well.

Just enter your phone number. I don't carry rewards cards

I think you've misread what I wrote. It might be able to handle rewards cards, but the card itself becomes a bottleneck because it can only function as one card at a time. I'd have to select the rewards card, have that swiped, then fumble with the card again to select my payment card and proceed to pay. It seems like a ghastly hassle.

If I had this I could see myself using this for rewards cards only. But then again, I don't have a lot of rewards cards that are fattening up my wallet.

Your fears sound irrational to me. It's just a button, on something already in your hand. I doubt you're going to "fumble" it, or that it's going to be a "ghastly hassle" to press a button one or more times. Once you've shopped at that store at least once, you know exactly how many times to press it to advance to the card you use there. All of this should take less time than putting a rewards card back into your wallet/pocket and taking out a separate credit card, which requires more mechanical actions in which you might "fumble" something.

When I think about standing in line pressing a button, iterating through a list of all my credit, debit, and rewards cards to find the right one, it seems like a hassle. Imagine I go past the correct card in my haste and I've got to keep pressing the button until I've looped back around to the correct one. Did I screw it up a third time? Now people in line behind me and the cashier are getting pissed off with how much time I'm taking. Oh wait, that was just for the rewards card and now I have to select the payment cards? I'd be regretting my mistake and wishing I could just pull a card out of my wallet.

Looking in my wallet to pick the silver card on the middle right and the brown card on the top left is so much easier. People can pick out location and color far faster because of our evolutionary history.

Stories are fun, let me try one :)

"I go to pay at the checkout counter. Oh wait! I suddenly remember I have a rewards card here. Good thing I carry it in my wallet along with the other 10 rewards cards I have...shoot, which pocket did I put it in? Maybe it's here? no wait...oh shoot, now I have to take all the cards out. I know it's a red card, but so is my Target and Walgreens card. Now all my cards are out all over the place. People behind me in line are getting pissed off with how much time I'm taking. Now all I have to do is collect all my cards from the counter, reorder them, and put them back in my wallet. I wish I just had one card in my pocket that could work for everything."

That's not ever been my experience at least, even when I carried every rewards card I'd ever applied for! In fact I can tell you where everything is in my wallet right now without even looking!

Seriously, someone downvoted you for knowing where your stuff is. Keep it classy HN.

I use my phone number for that purpose. Haven't had to produce a physical membership card in years.

But this is preventable. In most cases, while you're waiting in line you can get out both cards and be ready to go when it's your turn to order and pay.

With Coin, you have to find the cards serially, no matter how much lead time you have.

A "ghastly hassle"? If I don't use this it's because I only carry a few cards and so I don't have the problem it solves, not because of the solution itself.

in their FAQ it says that the coin can only hold 8 cards at a time, but the app can store an unlimited amount. So I assume that you'd have to sync the one(s) you want to use via mobile app (I'd hope) that you'd already have stored, then select it via toggle button on the card. It makes it sound kind of cumbersome for that purpose. I do like the overall idea though, I think its really cool and hope they succeed!

Most rewards cards are linked to your phone number, which you can use at the POS instead of the card.

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