CardStar: Don’t Leave Home Without It

I’ve signed up for many loyalty and membership programs over the years and have accumulated a sizable stack of plastic cards. I tend to keep the number of cards in my wallet to a minimum, which inevitably means that I often find myself at the checkout counter without the requisite card and miss out on the benefits. I almost always have my iPhone with me, whether I’m roaming around town or traveling the world. Wouldn’t it be great if I could somehow drop all of those cards onto my phone?

Earlier this year I discovered CardStar. At first glance it seemed to fit the bill almost perfectly. It allows me to store all my cards electronically and is even capable of displaying their barcodes on my iPhone’s screen. How well does it actually perform in practice? Read on to find out.

Entering Your Cards

Getting all your plastic in to CardStar is generally straight-forward and convenient. Begin by tapping the plus button on the main screen and then choose the appropriate merchant from the list. If the merchant you’re looking for isn’t among the hundreds included with the app, select “(Other)”. The next step is to enter the card number, you can either key in the number on the card manually, or if you have a compatible device, use the camera to scan the barcode. I have tried scanning numerous barcodes using my iPhone 4 and this feature worked flawlessly.

If the merchant was on the list, you’re done. If, on the other hand, you chose “(Other)” you’ll be presented with an additional screen where you can specify the title that will appear in your list of cards. You can also specify Barcode Attributes, with the goal of generating an onscreen barcode that matches the one on the physical card. If the card you’re using doesn’t have a barcode, choose a Symbology of “N/A”. As more merchants are added to CardStar’s database this extra step will become less of a necessity. Merchants pay a one-time setup fee as well as a monthly charge to be a part of the CardStar merchant network. The cost varies depending on the number of locations.

On a side note, I recommend hanging on to your plastic cards, or at least checking with merchants before you discard them. I’ve discovered that most merchants are more than happy to allow me to accumulate points using CardStar, but some require the physical card when redeeming points.

Get a New Card

When you add your existing cards to CardStar you’ll notice an option to “Get a new card”. As the name implies, this new feature allows you to apply for a card from within the app. Selecting any of the items in the “Web sign up” section simply brings up the merchant’s online web form. Convenient, but hardly revolutionary.

The “No sign up required” section is where things get more interesting. Selecting an item from this list and tapping “Next” instantly adds a new card to your CardStar list. For now, you’re limited to choosing from Honest Discounts, a card for saving on prescription costs at over 60,000 pharmacies in the United States, and Peekaboo, a mobile coupon provider, currently limited to the Boston area.

This feature shows promise. Making the sign-up process as simple as possible will encourage more people to participate in loyalty programs. CardStar plans to expand this feature over the next year and will be adding merchants beyond the borders of the United States.

Pick a Card, Any Card

With your cards entered into CardStar, it’s time to witness CardStar in action. When you arrive at the checkout or sign-in counter simply tap on the appropriate card and your card number, and in many cases a barcode will appear. A convenient Favorite Places feature, available through the Extras tab alongside a foursquare check-in facility, allows you to store frequently used locations. When you launch the app at a location designated as a favorite, CardStar will automatically display the appropriate card. A nice touch.

Ideally, you’ll run your phone past the barcode scanner, hear a satisfying “beep” and you’ll be on your way. In practice, it’s not always quite this simple. Successful scans are hit and miss in my experience.

As a general rule, handheld scanners are much more likely to work than flatbed scanners and keeping your screen clean and avoiding screen protectors will increase your chances of a successful scan. According to CardStar, imaging scanners can always successfully read a barcode from CardStar on any iPhone. Laser scanners tend to be be problematic and don’t work well with the iPhone 4′s Retina Display. The folks at CardStar are studying this issue and looking at the possibility of developing a software solution.

I have successfully used the barcode feature, but in practice find that I often resort to reading the number to the cashier. I encourage you to experiment with this feature and post your experiences in the comments. To help increase your chances of a successful scan, I recommend reading the tips that CardStar offers on the Support page of their website.

What’s the deal?

One major advantage to using CardStar over traditional plastic cards is that, in addition to being able to access your membership number, you also have information on merchants, including a convenient Store Locator, at your fingertips. Members of the CardStar merchant network can also promote deals through the app. A tag icon to the left of the merchant name indicates that one or more deals are available. Tapping the Deals tab for a specific merchant provides list of deals and the specifics of each deal.

Syncing and Backing Up

By signing up for a free CardStar Connect account and enabling the Backup feature, you can rest assured that your data is safely backed up to the cloud. Equally useful is a Sync feature that allows you to keep two devices in sync. I primarily use the iPhone version of CardStar, but occasionally fire up the iPad version, and appreciate being able to access and edit my card information from either device.

I found the distinction between Backup and Sync a bit confusing at first. In a nutshell, if you only have one device it’s sufficient to simply enable Backup. If you have a second device that you want to keep in sync with your main device then you would enable Backup on the main device and Sync on the secondary one. Lastly, if you have two devices that you want to keep in sync with each other, select Backup and Sync on both devices. Got that? All of this seems needlessly complicated.

What’s Missing?

CardStar is a genuinely useful app in its current form, and still has some room to grow. Support for merchants not listed in the database could be stronger. For example, it would be nice to be able to store a phone number and a link to the organization’s membership page.

The Member Login feature, available when using CardStar merchants is handy, but would be far more useful if CardStar auto-populated the login fields and gave one-touch access to the account. An option to password-protect the CardStar app would also be a welcome addition. Though, the iOS Passcode Lock feature, available in the General section of the Settings app, can be used to safeguard all of the data on your phone and is highly encouraged.
Lastly, hopefully CardStar will be able to come up with a clever software solution to improve reliability with laser scanners, especially where the iPhone 4 is concerned.

Summary

The most authentic measure of an app’s value is whether it’s actually used on a regular basis. I first installed CardStar over six months ago and it’s an app that I use frequently. Minor quibbles aside, it works as advertised. It’s convenient and makes life easier while allowing me to leverage the value of loyalty programs.

I look forward to the day when plastic cards, and maybe even wallets, are a thing of the past. Having all of this information stored on a phone could prove to be a viable alternative to universal smart cards. Emerging technologies, such as NFC (Near Field Communications) that enable exchange of information over short distances, may well make their way into future generations of the iPhone, making it even easier to access merchant services. In the meantime, CardStar helps usher in the era of the digital wallet.