Can your iPhone be an electronic wallet?  Maybe you are one of THOSE people that carries a massive, 2-inch-thick wallet stuffed with numerous credit cards, membership cards, fast-food punch cards, license, insurance card, etc.  What if you could carry your iPhone instead of your wallet?  Read this week's Tip to find out how!

Thanks to's "Wallet-Slimming Tips" and Albert Albert's blog on expanding on this article, we have our Tip o' the Week (and Dieter, a "rabid" anti thick-wallet guy who will soon have fewer victims upon whom he can to mete out his scorn and disdain).

Albert Alberts explains his method.  By scanning your various cards into iPhoto, you can import these scanned cards as photos directly into your iPhone via syncing with iTunes/iPhoto (photos of scanned cards courtesy of


It is recommended that you scan your cards front and back.  Some of your cards may have bar codes on them.  According to Albert Alberts, the bar code on your card images may be scanned.  For example, if you have a gym membership card with a bar code, it's possible that a gym employee can scan the bar code from the photo on your iPhone -- can you already feel your wallet getting thinner?

You may have to proceed on a trial-and-error basis.  Try scanning a few cards and see if the images on your iPhone are accepted by the issuers as valid - just double tap the photo so it fits the screen.  You may get some funny looks, but that may be a small price to pay for a skinny wallet!

So go ahead - make your iPhone your iWallet.  Even if you are unable to convince store employees to accept the mere image of your card, you can put your wallet on a diet by removing unnecessary cards and carry the information as digital photos.  Then, you still have the information available to you (i.e., credit card numbers, membership numbers, etc.) without having to manually input every bit of information into the Notes app on your iPhone.

Want another reason to scan your cards and slim down your wallet?  Think of the money you'll save on your chiropractor bills because one of your butt cheeks isn't riding 3 inches higher than the other every time you sit down.  Now THAT'S a Tip!

Disclaimer:  Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and we make no guarantees that your friendly neighborhood police officer will accept your driver's license scanned onto your iPhone).
