Too many cards!

Every week or two I have to empty my wallet to sort things out. It gets so full of crap, that it gets to the stage where I can’t close it. I am sure some of you can relate. So there I am screwing up old bus tickets, receipts (keeping a couple of important ones), sorting money, and re-organising my wallet. I also have a section for vouchers that I’m sure I’ll never even use.

Anyway, it always annoys me no end at the number of plastic cards I have. Most I need everyday – cashflow card, credit card, bus card, ID, drivers license, etc. Then the ones I occasionally need, so still have to carry – Flybuys, video store card, AA card, library card, Farmers beauty club card (!!), etc. THEN there are the ones that I hardly ever need, but feel lost without them, such as my airpoints card and the infamous 'coffee club' type cards. It's the whole 'just in case' thing.

My point is, it is sooooo annoying having all these cards. I think there should be ONE ultimate card to replace all other cards. It could have a little microchip or computer component that holds all information from our other cards. I read Jane’s blog entry a couple of weeks ago about the new Mastercard (http://technoculture05.blogspot.com/2005/09/mastercard-gets-clever.html) and thought that was quite cool. But how much cooler would it be if the one card was for everything, not just a credit card. Each shop or service could only access the part that they are authorised to, information could easily be added or removed, receipts could be electronically saved on it, etc, etc.
There probably is something like this ‘out there’, but how good would it be if it were just a common thing we all had. Perhaps this would see an end to the wallet! I would be very happy :)

-Shannon Doherty