If you are like me and have a bulging wallet full of membership and reward cards from different stores, than Cardmobili is a dream come true.
Cardmobili — which last week won Vodafone’s Mobile Clicks competition in Amsterdam for best mobile internet startup in Western Europe –offers its users the convenience of having all your cards in one single phone app.
The way it works is consumers enter their cards and mobile phone into the Cardmobili system. Then, Cardmobili produces, upon request, an image of any of those cards’ barcode, which the consumer can have scanned at the point of sale. Think of it as your Duane Reed keycard — but in image form.
I love this idea of having all my cards within my reach and centrally stored, however, one downside to this app is that not all scanners can read the electronic barcode Cardmobili generates. Presumably, more scanners will come online as adoption of Cardmobili’s service grows.
I would have signed up for Cardmobili, but my phone isn’t app-enabled. Instead, my friend joined Cardmobili and found the process easy. The fact that the service is free helps, too. The signup requires a valid email address or a Facebook account for joining through Facebook Connect. Then, you set up a password,and select your country. A confirmation email is then sent to activate your account.
Once you sign up, you automatically have access to hundreds of cards from around the world, including from the US. All that’s left to do is pick your cards. If the card you are looking for is not in their system, you can add a “custom card” with that loyalty program and your card info, and — snap! — you’re good to go. Let the dream begin.