When metal credit cards first came out, I thought they were cool. They were novel. They looked premium. They were basically indestructible compared to a regular plastic card. And at the time, only a handful of cards even had them, so there was something a bit different about having one.
I was a little vain about it. Fine.
But I have the opposite opinion now. And the reason is pretty simple. I do not really carry a wallet anymore. I have one, but it lives in my bag as emergency disaster recovery. We are talking a card with a decent amount of credit for emergencies if something happens to the phone or watch, and a card or two for cash withdrawals.
In the UK I almost never touch a physical card anyway. My phone and my watch handle everything. Apple Pay on both. Tap and go. For years now the only reason I pull out a card at all is to get cash from an ATM, and even that is rare.
We did an entire trip to France last year without once pulling out a physical card or touching cash. The whole thing. Did not miss it.
So when a subscription I pay for decides the premium perk they are going to give me is a metal card, I am not impressed. I am just thinking about how two metal cards in that slim wallet means I can’t actually use it as a backup the one time I actually need it.
Physical card use is down. Cash use is down. The trajectory is pretty obvious.
I have left the house with just my watch and been completely fine. Done it more than once. It works.
Going fully watch-only as a daily habit is probably a stretch. But the wallet is already basically an afterthought. Metal cards are so 2018. Current and future Scott is all in on the watch and phone combo.