How many plastic store cards do you carry around with you either on your keychain or in your wallet. I have one for the various grocery stores and pharmacies that I shop at and the collection takes up considerable space in my wallet.The numi key is a small keychain device that solves that problem. It can read and store all of your different loyalty and membership cards into one convenient device. At checkout you just look up the card using the LCD display and then ‘beam’ your number into any laser scanner and you’re good to go. The numi key is available through amazon for $34.95.
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Or, if you have an iphone, save yourself the ca$h and get the free app Cardstar.
Of course, on the Android platform there’s the free app Key Ring, which is a free application which will scan the bar codes from these cards and store them. Did I mention it’s free?
I like the idea of consolidating all of my codes. I seem to recall a service somewhere on-line that let you print out an ‘all in one’ card with several bar codes printed on it, as long as the service knew the ‘code’ used.
I really appreciate the loyalty programs and memberships that just offer a bar code sticker option you can place on another card, like Ace Rewards. To a lesser degree, I like being able to just look up my account via phone number, etc.- that takes more time, but it means I don’t need to carry all those flipping cards.
So, to me, the question is- would another key ring device be worth it to avoid the other options?
I’d probably look at it, but I think I will try Key Ring, mentioned above, first.
This numi key looks interesting. I installed Cardstar on my wife’s iPhone, but she says it doesn’t always work…only about 50% of the time, and never with any scanner other than a hand-held one. For example, we tried it at our local Safeway, in the self-service lane…it didn’t work.
I agree that ‘free’ is better…but not if it doesn’t work.
Or you could go to http://www.justoneclubcard.com and print out all your barcodes on one card for free. I did this years ago, and am just now needing to either tape my card up again or redo the barcodes.
The only “drawback” is that you can only input 8 barcodes on one card – I only have four, so it’s no issue to me.
This device is a silly and costly way of doing something you can easily do for free – and not take up space on your keyring (instead of a bunch of club cards, I keep my single card with all the barcodes in my wallet).
I tried KeyRing and it does not work. The laser bar code readers can never read the number. I always have to do a manual intervention. It looks like the numi key has solved this.
Try Melt, as featured on Forbes.com, and available on iTunes. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/melt/id453627910?ls=1&mt=8. It’s the best out there.