Jack Tame: Digital wallets and IDs - think of the convenience

I hate carrying my wallet.

Not because I’m a prickle pockets —I swear I’ll always buy my round!— but because at heart, I’m an optimiser. I don’t want something else to remember, a bulge in my back pocket. I want to be able to do everything with the least baggage possible.

My wallet has four cards. Just four. Bank card, credit card, driver’s license, and my TVNZ access card. Until two weeks ago, I needed a card to get into the Newstalk ZB offices as well, but not anymore. We’ve moved to a digital swipe system, an app on our phones. Very 2025.

I don’t carry cash. My wallet has nowhere to put it. Except for the $2.40 in change in the centre console of the family Corolla, I don’t have any cash whatsoever. I barely use my physical debit and credit cards; I just pay for everything with my phone.

For the best price I still need a real card for the bus, although they’ve recently changed the system so that in a pinch I can pay with my phone. My library card is digital. Concert tickets are digital. Auckland FC, Air New Zealand – it’s all on my phone.

If all goes well with the Government’s rollout, in a few months we should be able to access digital driver’s licenses. In the US they’ve now gone one step further. As of this week, American citizens with either Google or Apple phones can upload their passports to their devices and store them in digital wallets. The systems scan your passport and then read the little chip. They compare the photo page with a biometric scan of your face. You can use it as ID for domestic travel and although you still need a physical passport for international flights, surely it won’t be long until your digital ID does that too.

I know what you’re thinking. Digital passports, bank cards, driver’s licenses. Digital swipe cards for getting into the office. What could possibly go wrong?!

And I agree with you! The more that our vital ID and payment systems go digital, the more vulnerable many of these systems might be to failure, power outages, coding errors, or hacking.

At least for the near future, there will be traditional options. They’re not scrapping plastic driver’s licences just yet.

But all things being equal, I reckon 2026 might be the last year of my life in which I actually need to carry a wallet. I’m going to be first in line for a digital driver’s licence. A year from now, everything I need from my cards I should be able to do my phone.

And while I know there are risks, I know it’s a single point of failure, I know it’ll be even more of a disaster if I accidentally lose my phone. Truthfully my concerns are drowned out by an even stronger impulse. Sure, there are security concerns.

But man, just think of the convenience. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from Newstalk ZEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I hate carrying my wallet right, Not because I'm a
prickle pockets I swear I'm not. I will always buy
my round, I promise you, but because at heart I'm
an optimizer. So I don't want something else to remember,
a bulge in my back pocket. I just want to
be able to do everything with the least baggage possible,

(00:36):
if you know what I mean. So at the moment,
my wallet has four cards, right, just four. I've got
a bank card, a credit card, a driver's license and
then my TV and Z access card. And until two
weeks ago, I needed an access card to get into
the Newstalk's EDB officers as well, But not anymore. We're
very much moving with the times. It's twenty twenty five

(00:56):
and the Newstalk's EDB officers we've moved to a digital
swipe system like an app on our phones, right, So
don't need the card for the ZB officers anymore. As
it stands, I don't carry cash. My wallet actually has
nowhere to put it. I don't have a coins purse.
There's nowhere really that I can tuck notes into but

(01:17):
for the two dollars forty in change in the center
console of the Family Corolla. I don't actually have any cash.
I can't remember the time the last time I did.
I barely use my physical debit and credit cards. I
just pay for everything with my phone for the best price.

(01:38):
I do still need a real plastic card for the bus,
although they've recently changed that system so that in a pinch,
I can also pay with my phone. My library card
is digital, concert tickets are digital Auckland FC in New Zealand.
All of it is on my phone these days. If

(01:58):
all goes well with the government's rollout in a few months,
we should be able to access digital driver's licenses as well.
In the US have now gone one step further. As
of this week, American citizens with either Google or Apple
phones can upload their passports to their devices and store
them in digital wallets. And so the systems scan your

(02:21):
passport and then read the little chip at the back right.
They then compare the photo page from your passport with
the biometric scan of your face in the same way
that you might use face ID or something like that,
and you can use that ID for domestic travel in
the US, although you still need a physical passport for
international flights. But let's be honest, if they're doing that

(02:44):
for digital travel within the US, surely it's not going
to be long until your ID is used the same
way for international flights. And I know what you're thinking.
Digital passports, digital bank cards, digital drivers' licenses, digital swipe
cards for getting into the office. What prey could possibly

(03:07):
go wrong? And I agree with you, I do. The
more that our vital ID and payment systems go digital,
the more vulnerable many of these systems might be to
failure to power outages, to coding errors, or to hacking.
At least for the near future, of course, there are
going to be the traditional options available. They're not scrapping

(03:30):
plastic driver's licenses just yet. But all things being equal,
I reckon twenty twenty six might be the last year
of my life in which I actually need to carry
a wallet. I reckon, this is it. I reckon we've
reached the end of the road. I'm going to be

(03:52):
first in line for a digital driver's license once they
introduce them here, and a year from now, I reckon,
everything I need from my cards I should be able
to do with my phone and while look, I know
there are risks. I understand there are risks. I know
it's a single point of failure. I know it'll be
even more of a disaster if I accidentally lose my phone. Truthfully,

(04:18):
my concerns are drowned out by an even stronger impulse.
Sure there are security concerns, but man, just think of
the convenience.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
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