Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Posted by Tom Watson
Every time you leave the house in the morning you probably do the same mental check as every other Australian - do I have my phone, keys, headphones, wallet and bag?
But with smartphone apps making everything from digital payments options to budgeting achievable in just a few swipes, more and more Australians are leaving their wallets at home in exchange for the convenience of their phone.
So if you’re ready to ditch your wallet for good here are the apps that you’ll need to do it:
Depending on your phone and banking provider you’ll be able to take advantage of the virtual wallets for your phone released by Android, Apple and Samsung in which you can easily upload eligible debit or credit cards. Once these virtual versions of your cards have been uploaded you’ll be ready to tap and go with your phone anywhere with payWave and PayPass!
Stocard allows you to leave your plastic at home and keep all your major loyalty and store cards (and there sure are a lot of them) in one place by creating digital versions of your cards all in the one app on your phone. So next time you go to redeem your rewards you’ll know exactly where to look.
Are you sick of having to carry around a wallet bulging with receipts? Well gone are the days when you needed to keep track of your spending by tallying up receipts for your monthly budget.
The Pocketbook app will help you keep tabs on your spending by automatically tracking every purchase you make and displaying them in easy to read summaries to help you find ways to get your budget on track and save.
Thanks to the Federal Government's ‘Express Plus’ app, the New South Wales Government's ‘Service NSW’ app and the South Australian government's ‘mySA Gov’ app you’ll be able to leave some of your government-issued cards and licences at home.
Drivers Licences
A virtual driver’s licence would perhaps be the last piece in the jigsaw which would allow many Aussies to be ditch their wallets for good.
The good news is that if you live in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria or Western Australia the wait might not be too long, as each state government has expressed plans to digitise their respective drivers licences in the near future.
Transport Cards (Opal, Myki, Go)
If you’re living in New South Wales you could soon be able to use your mobile to tap on and off the Opal public transport system. In fact, a trial is already underway which allows passengers to tap on and off using a Mastercard contactless payment option (including both card and mobile).
There are also reportedly plans underway to introduce mobile payment options on the Melbourne (Myki) and South-East Queensland (Go) transport networks.