Feb 16 2008
Finding the perfect wallet, a challenge.
What does your wallet look like?
No, it’s not even close to a rhetorical question. I’m hoping for an answer. Do you have a “George Costanza” wallet with every conceivable piece of paper and plastic stored in it, or are you a minimalist (like my brother Piet who has a drivers licence, a credit card and some cash clipped together in his pocket. Do you have a billfold? A trifold with slots for a gazillion cards? A bifold? Does you wallet have a chain to hold it to your belt, or velcro to hold it closed?
Why do I ask? It’s because at this point in my life I can look back and remember carrying almost every wallet described above, and thinking at the time that each was the “perfect” wallet.
All that said I’ve been actively decreasing the size of my wallet over the years. Shedding unused video memberships and bank cards and dilligently applying the “clutter rule” (if you haven’t used it in the last 30 days, you probably do NOT need to carry it with you). At present the wallet I carry is a bifold with external springsteel money clip. There are three slots inside that carry one of my bank cards and two of my credit cards, and an ID window that has adequate space to hold my drivers, firearms and security licences (along with my health card) and just enough room to spare to hold a family picture and my benefits card.
What was your wallet again?
I carry two Bosca folding business card wallets. Each one has two pockets. I stuff credit, bank, healthcare, security licence, BCDL, membership and coffee cards in the pockets with nothing to divide each bundle of cards. I just make sure not to put 2 magstripes together. The other wallet goes in my other pocket and holds my VCH business cards on one side and my own company cards on the other. Cash is sorted by denomination, folded once and carried in the same pocket as the business card wallet with no clip. I can often pull out a bill of the proper denomination without removing the bundle. Maybe I’m paranoid or something.
I used a clip for years and found it was more of a nuisance than a help. The money stays together and there is no clip to wreak havoc with the fabric or my leg. Keys get carried on a belt clip for the same reason.
This riddle is solved if you carry a purse. Men with handbags were relatively common ‘way back in my hippie days, but this has gone the way of earth shoes. As for me, I keep bills, change, bus tickets, library card etc. in my minimalist wallet in my purse. Credit cards, drivers licence, etc. are in the zipped pocket of the purse.
This has worked so well that my original red and white health card is still in super shape after umpty years. Unfortunately, I have to give it up and get a photo card anyway. Drat.
I always wonder where purseless people put hankies, cough drops, lip salve, pen and paper, and hand sanitizer.
However, now that I am becoming old and scatty I may need something more firmly attached to my carcase — a fanny pack? Matti is forever asking , “Have you got your purse?”.
Just make sure your wallet is not made from skin from an electric eel!!
Seriously, though … The Mythbusters did a segment on mag stripes, including stacking them stripe to stripe, and found that the data was surprising robust. In the end they had to resort to a powerful ‘rare earth’ magnet to degauss the stripe.
On the other hand, a bit of research on the Web just now suggests that the issue of wiping mag stripes has no clear answer … if you want to kill an hour or two, Google what people report about losing their mag stripe data … LOL!
Cool, my wallet made the post.
Years of carrying just a Driver’s License, with my cash folded around it has spoiled wallets for me.
The complete contents of my wallet consist of Driver’s License, Range card, two Credit cards, car insurance, one blank check and a copy of my C&R license. Sometimes I even have cash.
Oh, and the “Money Clip” part is a leather covered magnet, and I have yet to have a card not swipe.
(NOTE: There is a blank check to ensure alternate funding in the event of cool Boom-Stick sales.)
Carbonman: Hrm…two wallets, eh? I’ve only just been given business cards again and don’t really carry them on my except when I’m working, so the fact that my wallet doesnt’t have room for them doesn’t figure into my wallet planning.
Just folding the money works for you? I can usually do the same trick with money off my clip (cash is also sorted by denomination with smallest bills on the “inside” of the fold) from inside my pocket. It’s a one-way trick however, as I definately need two hands to put money into the clip.
(The other downside of the external money clip is that Lisa can see - at a glance - how much money I have in cash, and can volunteer me to pay for things)
KD: I can see a purse being handy, but truthfully I have pockets for the other odds and sods.
I typically carry my wallet, cell phone, keys, watch, pocket knife/micro-maglight and sunglasses, with the bulk being carried in my jacket (or in summer a cargo pant pocket). Anything more than that can stay in the glovebox.
That’s nothing compared to my uniform. I carry all sorts of things with me at work, and consider my uniform jacket to be some sort of rent-a-cop Tardis (at least in storage).
Matti: I dunno. Talked to Piet about that last night, still a little gun shy about using a wallet with magnets for the money clip. As for the mag stripe, I’ve had to replace my Credit Union bank card twice now due to mag stripe issues (bad data errors on POS equipment). Of course I just went back to using cash more often than my bank card (harder to “skim” cash) and the problem hasn’t resurfaced.
Piet: Natch your wallet made the post. Your uber-minimalist wallet was the motivation behind my buying the wallet I have now (even if I did agonize over the purchase for a while, and STILL bug Lisa by saying “Hey, did you see my new wallet?”).
Out of curiousity why do you carry your car insurance in your wallet, why not keep it with the registration in the glovebox?
(I understand about the cheque…I carry a blank cheque in the front flap of my wallet - I’m supposed to carry a $50 or $100 bill there as well as “hail mary” options, I just never remember to get one when I’m at the bank).
“Out of curiousity why do you carry your car insurance in your wallet, why not keep it with the registration in the glovebox?”
The registration is displayed in the form or a sticker on the windshield (In Texas), the titles are locked in the safe.
In Texas you have to prove you’re an insured motorist when stopped, after jumping through hoops to prove it after the fact (IE getting pulled over in Nik’s car) it just seemed prudent to carry a copy with me.
Besides the less paperwork with my information lying around the better.
P.S. Cops love to wait while you have the “What do you mean you forgot to put the insurance card in your car!” phone call.
I have one verging on a Costanza. Bi-fold leather, but I tend to keep all paper, money etc, folder in half on one side and the other has nothing. That side has the flap up thingy for my Drivers license. It’s lasted me a while. In concession to the crap I carry around extra., I’ve had to move it from the back to a front pocket, I’ve heard this is safer for pickpockets too, but it does make my pants a little bulky sometimes with the cell phone, iPod Nano, car keys etc…
Having no purse, and no socially acceptable way of carrying one, I’ve had to concede the bulk of my wallet and an accept it. Here’s where Matti will chime in about purses..
Piet: Ah.. I can see that I guess. I used to carry copies of my registration and insurance in the car and keep the originals in my safe at home (ages back someone stole them from my car, what a nuisance) but I guess I’ve become lazy as it hasn’t happened again and I’ve gotten back in the habit of keeping the originals in the car (besides I get two pink copies of my insurance each year, one in the car, one in my safe).
Theodore: Cool! So what’s actually in there? Do you use it all? Is there a filing system in place, or is it just force of habit to jam everything in there? Are you happy with the current arrangement?
In Ontario, you don’t need the original vehicle permit - only “a true copy thereof”. And, as most insurers mail out two copies of the pink, we can stand to lose one.
Or get it soaked under the seat of your motorcycle riding home through that rainstorm
I have old pay stuff, receipts etc. I periodically dump it out into a basket or something, but I never actually use the contents again. Came in handy at the dentist last week though. they wanted an old pay stub to prove we be broke so Wes’ gets free work. I had all of them from 2008 so far….just pick the smallest one.
The wallet works, it’s what I do with the crap after I empty it that I have to deal with.
I feel kinda weird when i empty the wallet. light…empty. But now I have so many gift cards with $2-3 on them that it’s full of plastic.
Folding everything and keeping it on the right side allows me to flip open the drivers license flap easily and seems to keep cards from bending. Plus it seems to keep my cards from getting periodically wiped out, a problem I used to have. maybe putting it in front helped too.
What an odd topic to get verbose on.
Matti DOES have a purse, actually. It is some kind of surplus military bag. But he keeps his camera in there and calls it a camera bag…
Not surprised. I mean look how his children turned out.
It is a camera bag!!
Excellent. Now every time I hear “cowcowcowcow” Erik, you can expect a volley of “Nice ‘camera bag’, dude”.
“Not surprised. I mean look how his children turned out. ”
Hey, wait a minute, that’s not nice.
Ted, I think your inner purse carrier maybe lashing out.
I say let her free Ted, don’t be ashamed to load up your “EuroBag” and
skip through the mall looking for really great shoe sales.
Piet, I dare you to wear one in your adopted home town.
be sure to pick a colour that matches your tats.
I go big or go home, I tend to carry a bike-courier satchel. Waaaay bigger than a purse, but still cool. However it’s so big it tends to get jammed full of useless extra crap and becomes super heavy.
Not sure how a purse would go over down here.
But it seems like Texas is the “Fanny packs” last stand.
Of course most them contain pistols.
I kind of skipped the backpack, courier bag stage and went straight to a tool box mounted on the truck.
Seems my version carrying around useless stuff, comes in the form of hauling around a million tools.
There is also a impressive collection of empty cigarette packs in the van.
But I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for a urban camo hand bag, something small and sexy to go with my little black number..:)
Closer to the “George Costanza”. A tommy Hilfiger loaded with crap, but I no longer carry it in my hip pocket. I discovered it kinks my back to sit with one butt cheek an inch higher than the other.
Depends if we are talking “at work” or “in general”. At work, I do not need terribly many cards, so I have a Jimi Wallet I use to carry what I do need around, and not destroy it in my pocket. The little thing is surprisingly durable, and carries just the basics. I managed to kill my last one by running into a metal corner, but it lasted almost two years before that happened.
As for my “in general” wallet, I use a bifold with external ID window… It carries my currency, my credit card and deibt card, and all of my various membership cards (Costco, ranges, Blockbuster, banks, etc.), simply because I know I would forget one of them when I go out for errands, and would be kicking myself the entire way home.
A Maxpedition courier bag has been tempting, but I just cannot quite bring myself to sport a purse, urban cammo or not…