No More Card Clash With the New Merlo Smart Wallet

London, United Kingdom, January 8, 2016 (Newswire.com) - London-based design company, Merlo, has big ambitions to stop card clash with the launch of its new range of smart wallets and card holders. The four product designs are slim and stylish while the tech inside lets the user take control of the growing number of contactless cards that are needed every day. Each product has two outer pockets for easy access to contactless cards, travelcards or access cards, which can be used without removing them from the wallet. Digging out the right card at busy places like train stations or cafes, has become a thing of the past.

The duo behind Merlo are Amy Walker and Mark Longstaff-Tyrrell. They brought together their tech expertise and leather accessories design knowledge to design and create the collection of accessories with patent-pending technology inside. It was an awkward moment on the London tube that sparked the idea.

"I got caught by card clash at the tube barrier after I kept my travelcard and contactless credit card together. Either I'd end up charging the journey to the wrong card, or the the gate wouldn't open at all," said Amy Walker, Merlo co-founder. "The only solution at the time was to take the card out of the wallet every time I wanted to use it which was slow and I thought it defeated the convenience of the technology. I felt there had to be a better way."

Amy Walker, Merlo co-founder

“I got caught by card clash at the tube barrier after I kept my travelcard and contactless credit card together. Either I'd end up charging the journey to the wrong card, or the the gate wouldn't open at all,” said Amy Walker, Merlo co-founder. “The only solution at the time was to take the card out of the wallet every time I wanted to use it which was slow and I thought it defeated the convenience of the technology. I felt there had to be a better way.”

Card clash moments are such a problem that Transport for London runs an ongoing marketing campaign to highlight the issue that, at its peak, caught out up to 2000 commuters a day.

“It’s taken 2 years to figure out the technology and prototypes, and we rigged up a card reader for testing various technology ideas," said Merlo co-founder, Mark Longstaff-Tyrrell. “In parallel, we’ve road-tested and tweaked a whole raft of different purse and wallet designs, and narrowed it down to four that we felt would be most useful. We hope to expand this range in the future and introduce more colours. But we wanted to bring a product to market that will hopefully make your busy life a little bit easier!”

The contactless “card clash” problem

There are 34 million contactless cards in use across the UK, with 11 million transactions made every month. Contactless technology offers a quick way of paying for transport or lunch, with payment authorised through a single tap of the card on the terminal. It's not necessary to put a card into the machine or type a pin number. But keeping an increasing number of contactless credit, debit and transport cards together in a single wallet can lead to a problem: “card clash”. This happens when all the contactless cards in a wallet try to connect at once to a payment terminal. The terminal doesn’t know which card to connect to and so latches onto the first one, or fails. Either way, the user is not in control and it’s a lottery as to which card, if any, will be used for the payment. It's right back to square one and having to take the correct card out to make a payment.

The solution

Merlo’s patent-pending technology is included as standard inside each product and allows the user to choose the right contactless card for the right payment without removing any cards. It’s great because there are no credit cards exposed in busy places, or searching for the right card and holding up the queue. All Merlo smart wallets contain at least three card pockets – two on the outside for the most frequently-used contactless cards, while cards inside the wallet can’t be scanned at all.

Merlo's research revealed that card users mainly tend to use one or two cards to make most of their on-the-go purchases. The smart wallet gives immediate access to these cards without having to continually take them out to make payments. It protects credit card information, reduces risk of theft and makes life easier. A credit card can be used by tapping the wallet on one side at the coffee shop, and a transport card can be tapped on the other side at the train station. The wallets are all crafted in leather with a durable suede lining.

The people

Amy owns a London-based accessories design and manufacturing business and supplies boutiques and shops nationwide.

Mark is an electronics engineer with wide-ranging experience from designing educational electronics kits to leading the teams working on some of the most downloaded apps for various blue chip companies.

Where to buy Merlo products

Visit www.merlolondon.com to find out more about the range and buy the products.

For more details contact:

hello@merlolondon.com

+44 207 183 3564