Wallets with RFID electronic blocker type materials?

[Don Morris]

My leather bifold wallet with coin holder is starting to come apart at the seams. I'm not real interested in looks or name, but I've seen enough of the warnings about being able to read credit cards through unprotected leather that I'm considering paying the extra for that added protection. The problem seems to be that when independently tested, many of the advertised "RFID protected" wallets don't block electronic snooping well, just partially. Has anyone investigated this, and got some good answers? What I've read is the present RFID wallet blocking technology is still in it's infancy and needs more work other than a metal case?

[Tom M King]

I keep my cards in little protective sleeves. Not only are they supposed to be protected from pocket pirates, but the cards last until the bank sends me another one. Before the sleeves, they might have lasted three months. I just ordered the sleeves from Amazon.

[Bruce Page]

I use the sleeves also but find them an irritation with my fat fingers. An RFID protected wallet would be nice.

[Brian Elfert]

Have you asked your credit card issuer or your bank to see if any of any your cards actually have RFID? I have a number of cards and I am not aware of any of them having RFID capabilities.

[George Bokros]

I keep my cards in little protective sleeves. Not only are they supposed to be protected from pocket pirates, but the cards last until the bank sends me another one. Before the sleeves, they might have lasted three months. I just ordered the sleeves from Amazon.

Do you have to remove the sleeve from your wallet to take the card out of the sleeve? The sleeves seem like a hassle but protection is important. I carry my wallet in my shirt pocket because when I carried it my back pocket my credit cards usually get cracked before it was time for a new card to be issued.

I am considering one of the aluminum wallets for the RFID protection or these sleeves.

[Tom M King]

The card comes out with the sleeve on it. I've been using them for several years now, and hardly even think about pulling the card out of the sleeve, or putting it back in. I bought one of the aluminum ones, but it wasn't comfortable in my pocket. I use the smallest "wallet" possible.

[George Bokros]

I like the smallest wallet possible also that is why I have shied away from the aluminum ones.

[Tom M King]

Mine is a little single fold leather with two pockets that hold a few cards, and a cash clip on the outside. It's not much larger than a card overall.

[roger wiegand]

Do you actually have RFID credit/debit cards? They are awfully scarce, other than the ones used for building or parking garage passes. I had one 7-8 years ago and never found a place that would let me scan it, when the bank replaced it it no longer had RFID. The new "chip" cards now being issued don't use RFID.

[George Bokros]

I only found one place, and that was 9 yrs ago, that had RFID. It was local gas station for pay at the pump. I do not travel past them any longer so I don't know if they still have it.

What technology does ApplyPay, SamsunPay and Google Wallet use? This technology sounds convenient but if you loose your phone you are in trouble if you don't have a password to open yoru phone.

[Brian Elfert]

Cell phones use Near Field Communications or NFC. You cannot enable Apple Pay without having a passcode or Touch ID enabled. If the phone is lost and you go to Apple.com and put it in lost mode then Apple Pay is disabled. I have an iPhone and haven't set up Apple Pay because a lot of places don't take and it is just as easy to take out a card as to grab your phone and unlock and whatever. I maybe should set up Apple Pay for the places that take Apple Pay, but still don't take chip cards.

[Dan Friedrichs]

I don't think there is a single documented case of a "real criminal" stealing information using an RFID reader on someone's wallet. Some security researchers have shown it can be done, but geez, I wouldn't spend a second worrying about it happening to me!

ApplePay uses NFC. SamsungPay uses a magnetic field (just like a regular swipe credit card, just stronger), but uses a one-time crypto key that makes it non-reusable, even if someone were to intercept the signal.

[Matt Meiser]

Dan, let's not let facts get in the way of a good old fashion scare.

Have you considered tin foil? Hear it makes good hats too.

[Mike Henderson]

It's unlikely that you have a single RFID card in your wallet. The chips in credit cards are contact cards.

Mike

[Dan Hintz]

I don't think there is a single documented case of a "real criminal" stealing information using an RFID reader on someone's wallet. Some security researchers have shown it can be done, but geez, I wouldn't spend a second worrying about it happening to me!

Plenty of documented cases, just few make it to the light of day for the mainstream media. There's a reason us security researchers continue to work in this field.

It's unlikely that you have a single RFID card in your wallet. The chips in credit cards are contact cards.

Quite a few PIN/chip cards out there are NFC. Technically, these should be considered NFC cards, not generic RFID.




To answer the main question about RFID blockers...the passive "packet" systems are "okay" in some cases, and completely useless in others. The shields almost always require the blocking plane to be directly against the card. One recent development, which I have been following closely since I saw the author present her research at ShmooCon last month, is called GuardBunny. She still has some shortcomings to work out (which reminds me, I promised to send some suggestions and haven't gotten around to it yet), but even now it's a pretty robust system (and quite inexpensive to manufacture, to boot).