I keep one card outside of my wallet for quick access. It's not the most used card (although it often happens to be), it's the one which is the most urgent.
This is basically always an id/access card or a transit card. Even if I'm only going through a particular door or transit system once a day, I always feel like I'm in a rush. I'm already moving before I reach it and ready to be somewhere else, I don't want to suddenly stop. Since I'm on the go my hands might be full, or there might be someone waiting behind me to pass through as well. In that situation it feels incredibly cumbersome and clunky to take out a wallet, open it up, and slide out the right card.
In contrast, no matter how often I use it I would never keep a payment card outside my wallet. When I'm paying for things I'm standing still and waiting for a cashier or a checkout system to process. Plenty of time to dig out a wallet.
Keeping a card outside a wallet also makes it liable to be accidentally dropped or lost, and if I'm going to lose something I'd rather the headache of a transit card than the panic of a credit card.
Of course, there can only be one quick access card. If there's two you'll mix them up and lose all the speed/ergonomic benefits, and if there's any more than that you've created a worse wallet.
Pick one priority card and commit to it. You can always change it later.
- Rew
Nightly Notes
I've been on the fence about the absorption of cards into phones for a while now. On the one hand, less things to manage. On the other hand, I like the reliability of a physical card. There's no battery to charge or permissions to grant, and even if you run into some technical issue, you can still show it to other people.
- Rew