Business

Alistair Fairweather

Wallets are going to be extinct soon; the only variable is how long it will take. Just a decade ago, if I left the house for any significant length of time, I'd take my wallet. Last year, I flew to the UK to visit friends and didn't take my wallet, or any of its contents. The only wallet related snag I faced on the entire trip was that the airport lounge needed to swipe a physical card. Other than that, my phone sufficed for every transaction I encountered, large or small.

I'm not an early-adopter anymore – I am too old, busy and grumpy – so I'm sure that some of my readers reached this point before the pandemic, if not earlier. That said, a great many others will be rolling their eyes at my prediction and will not part with their beloved polony sandwich wallet under pain of death. The tide, alas, is pulling against them. There are several forces driving wallets onto the endangered species list, the most important of which is the imminent death of physical credit cards. As virtual cards and mobile wallet systems like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay have taken off, carrying around a physical piece of plastic has become less relevant. Not only are these systems far quicker and less fiddly, they're also more secure. Retailers adore them, in part because they tend to make people spend more. Just waving your phone makes paying feel very remote from month-end debit orders.