This might be reason enough to keep my iPhone around as an iPod Touch. CardStar is a new app that makes your life a lot easier.
My wallet is filled with various loyalty cards for retail and grocery stores. When I travel, I grab whatever cards are necessary (such as Delta and Hilton) and add those into the mix as well. My keychain has several loyalty cards that are beat to a pulp just from being on my keychain. In fact, my gym now only offers keychain cards. (What were they thinking?)
CardStar can put an end to all of that. You can add many of your loyalty cards, including the scannable bar code, to your iPhone and then the cards can still be scanned in by the cashier. Cool, right? CardStar has a merchant list of over 130 companies. I noticed right away that they included Kroger, Sam’s Club, Hallmark, Trade Secret, DSW, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Delta Airlines. All of those are in my purse right now.
To make the application work, you just enter your membership number and the app does the rest. It also offers advanced options for adding cards not included in their merchant list – like my gym. Right now, the CardStar app is available for free from the iTunes App Store (iTunes link), although normally it’s 99¢.
While the application is currently only available for Apple mobile devices, they are developing versions for Blackberry, Android, and Palm.