(if you want to see all the features and how many cards and cash it can hold, please watch the video)
Welcome to the Q and A session. Today we are going to be reviewing three questions that were sent in. You are always welcome to submit questions for our review. If you go to Walletopia.info/ask, you can send an email. It will get to us. Make sure you always leave your name so we can reference you as part of the Q and A.
Let’s get into the first question. We are going to talk about the new Apple credit card and the controversy around how it interacts with wallets. I wanted to thank James for submitting this through our voicemail system. Let’s first start off by saying the Apple card is really an Apple fail right off the bat and we will get into exactly why. We do a followup on this in another Q&A which is very enlightening.
The Apple card comes in a wonderful little package and it is bright and shiny and new. Let’s be clear on their approach to providing these credit cards to people in the beginning. When you apply, you actually do so on your iPhone via the Wallet app. There is no online application or anything else. At that point you are either accepted or denied. If you are accepted, you are immediately given the card via the Wallet app in the iPhone and you can immediately use it via digital means. Therefore, when you are in a store that accepts Apple pay, you can use it there or you can use the numbers for online purchases. You can gain access to the numbers via the app as well, but you are still using everything digital.
If you want the physical card, it doesn’t just come to you. You have to request this. This should be a hint about which direction they want you to go with their usage. When you order this card it comes in a nice, cool package that is nice, shiny and new, but if you intend to carry it with you, you will be disappointed by the newness because it will all wear off. I mean, literally it will become really dungy, dull and old. The digital nature of the card becomes very clear in the company support guide for the physical card, which includes handling care and cleaning that unfortunately runs contrary to the way we use credit cards all the time. Apple advises consumers to store the card in a soft pocket or bag made of soft materials and to place the card in a slot in your wallet or billfold without touching another credit card or you’ll scratch it. This is just crazy. They also indicate that if your titanium Apple card comes in contact with hard services or materials, it is possible that the coding can be damaged.
So, running counter to how we actually use our credit card, here is what you can’t do with your Apple credit card, especially if you want to keep it nice, shiny and new. Don’t put it in a leather wallet. Don’t put it in jeans lest it become discolored. Don’t put it next to other credit cards, lest it becomes scratched. Don’t let it rummage around in your purse, bag or anywhere else untethered, lest it become scratched. It is sensitive to magnets, so if you have a magnetic closure on your wallet, it could demagnetize the card. And finally, if you want to clean it, who cleans their credit cards? Oh, yeah. Nobody. You have to use rubbing alcohol. And so, the requirements on how to clean it are just kind of ridiculous. Essentially, it’s a cool card to show your friends when it’s nice, shiny, and new, but not really useful as a physical object. It makes you wonder if they really do want you to only use your iPhone Wallet for transactions, but like tens of millions of us, we still use cards. I think it’s a novelty, but it does have some benefits.
The next question is about the Trayvax Contour wallet and the card extraction we had on my video review. I demonstrated pushing the cards from the bottom. If we get some cards and put them in here, you can see that the method is to really push the Trayvax cards via the thumb. The problem is that the top card is scratched by the underside of the metal, which is why I was saying to push from the bottom because it doesn’t force a lot of friction. Doing it this way is the best way to do it if you don’t have a lot of cards. You can push down which actually separates it from the top of the metal, and you can probably get away with not scratching your cards, but I don’t know why I would have to sacrifice a card to get around a problem the wallet has. I had suggestions to use a dummy card, which, while it works, begs the question of again, why? Why do I need to make accommodations for something that is clearly wrong with the wallet?
The way it should work is using the thumb push to push the cards up, but since it scratches cards, that is why I made the recommendation to push them from the bottom up. Hopefully this will get addressed. It is an awesome way to push the cards. Now you know the difference between why I did it the way I did and the way it should be done. Hopefully corrections can be made to the wallet.
The last item is to validate to all of you who have submitted wallet review recommendations via the Walletopia.info site that we review those submissions every day and we put them on our list. Thank you so much for your contributions toward informing our community about the wallets that exist around the world. It makes the environment more rich and enjoyable. If you want to make a suggestion, a recommendation of a wallet we should review, go to Walletopia.info/surveys and you will be able to get there, find the survey you want and make the submission.
Give us a question if you have them, something that you see as a trend, things you don’t like, things you wish you would talk about, and we’ll bring it up in our next question and answer.
The pinnacle of Trayvax’s wallet line, the Contour shows the company's engineering, materials and finish expertise.
