\n<\/p>\n
Fewer than half of British adults now carry a physical wallet, according to recent research, with many carrying payment cards on their phones or smartwatches instead.<\/p>\n
But while digital wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay are the default payment method among generation Z and millennials, many people over the age of 44 still rely on physical debit and credit cards.<\/p>\n
Four readers told us about their wallets.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Alosh K Jose says the move to online and contactless payments after the Covid pandemic means it is unnecessary to carry a wallet.<\/span> Photograph: Alosh K Jose\/Guardian Community<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to weigh me down,\u201d says Alosh K Jose, from Newcastle upon Tyne, adding that he now rarely uses a physical wallet. \u201cIt became an additional, needless thing to carry in my pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n Jose says the move to online and contactless payments after the Covid pandemic means it is unnecessary to carry a wallet. \u201cAll my bank cards are on my phone,\u201d said the 31-year-old, who runs a company delivering cricket sessions in the local community.<\/p>\n Despite getting stuck on a train in Spain during the huge power outage that hit parts of Europe in April, Jose does not feel the need too carry cash.<\/p>\n \u201cMy fiancee and I were travelling from Barcelona to Madrid and had to wait five hours on the train before we got off. We only had \u20ac10 [\u00a38.70] in cash but some people gave us a bit of money so we could get on a bus,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the same were to happen in Newcastle, even without physical cash there\u2019s no language barrier so I think it\u2019d be fine. Maybe I\u2019d think differently if I was travelling further or on holiday abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Roger, who still uses a physical wallet, says he feels vulnerable taking his phone out of his pocket.<\/span> Photograph: Roger\/Guardian Community<\/p>\n In Buckinghamshire, Roger, a retired IT worker, still carries a wallet and a separate coin purse. \u201cPutting my cards on my smartphone would mean having all my eggs in one basket and becomes a single point of failure,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Apart from having some cards that have no electronic equivalent and are necessary for him to carry, the 69-year-old says he feels vulnerable taking his phone out of his pocket. \u201cFlashing it to pay for something in a shop strikes me as a dangerous thing to do and I risk dropping it too.<\/p>\n \u201cI worked in IT and security and I recognise that there are windows of opportunity for misuse when it comes to sensitive information. I just don\u2019t want to leave that window wide open [using a digital wallet].\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>A snippet from the letters page of the Times from the 1980s.<\/span> Photograph: Roger\/Guardian Community<\/p>\n Among the cash, payment and loyalty cards in his wallet, Roger carries a snippet from the letters page of the Times from the 1980s: \u201cI\u2019ve been a morris dancer since I was 20 and the letter says something about me, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Gen Z-er Georgina finds it shocking that so few people carry a wallet.<\/span> Photograph: Georgina\/Guardian Community<\/p>\n Georgina, 26, finds it shocking that so few people carry a wallet. \u201cI carry a purse on me at all times as I prefer to own physical items over digital copies,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n In her purse she carries debit cards; a driver\u2019s licence; railcard, supermarket loyalty cards; \u00a320 in emergency cash along with loose change; and a \u201cbattered business card for a taxi company\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/span>Georgina goes against the grain by not using a digital wallet.<\/span> Photograph: Guardian Community<\/p>\n As a gen Z-er, Georgina, who lives in Leeds and helps to develop and deploy online tech training courses, goes against the grain by not using a digital wallet.<\/p>\n \u201cCall me old-fashioned but I hate the idea of it,\u201d she says. \u201cAll my friends use their phones to pay for things and I can see it\u2019s convenient \u2013 I think they just think it\u2019s a bit quirky that I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cI like physical things like using a card and miss things like paper concert tickets. It\u2019s about control as I don\u2019t want to be too reliant on my phone. I remember when you used to have to ask people if they take cards, but now you need to ask if they take cash. It\u2019s wild.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Before she received her first smartphone during the pandemic, Sara Hayward used to carry a wallet \u2018twice the size\u2019 of her phone case.<\/span> Photograph: Sara Hayward\/Guardian Community<\/p>\n Sara Hayward, a 61-year-old artist from Worcester, says her wallet \u201chas morphed into a generous phone case\u201d.<\/p>\n Before she received her first smartphone during the pandemic, Hayward used to carry a wallet \u201ctwice the size\u201d of her case and, as an artist, often had a digital camera with her. Now her phone case is a combination of all of these \u2013 and more.<\/p>\n <\/span>Sara Hayward still carries physical cards but tucked into the case of her phone.<\/span> Photograph: Sara Hayward\/Guardian Community<\/p>\n \u201cI keep my bank card, airport taxi card, supermarket loyalty card, local stately home garden season ticket, note to self stating annual multi-trip travel insurance information, GHIC card, Polaroid snapshot of me, my daughter and my son\u2019s girlfriend at a recent Mallorcan wedding, receipts as I\u2019m self-employed, and emergency cash.<\/p>\n \u201cMy phone has short videos of my mum before she passed away four years ago. It\u2019s like a living wallet having her on there.\u201d<\/p>\n Hayward does not use any digital payment methods as physical cards feel more \u201csecure\u201d. The perfect compromise has one drawback though: \u201cThere\u2019s no room for my lipstick and tissue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fewer than half of British adults now carry a physical wallet, according to recent research, with many carrying payment cards on their phones or smartwatches instead. But while digital wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay are the default payment method among generation Z and millennials, many people over the age of 44 still<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[6967,8004,5550,1326,862,6224,6789],"class_list":{"0":"post-20838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-affairs","9":"tag-carry","10":"tag-consumer","11":"tag-dont","12":"tag-readers","13":"tag-wallet","14":"tag-weigh"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018I don\u2019t want to leave the window wide open for misuse of my sensitive information\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018I just like using a physical card \u2013 it\u2019s about control\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018My wallet <\/strong>is a generous phone case\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n