Alternatives
Every loyalty wallet is free.
The question is what it is
free for.
Storing a barcode is not hard, so no wallet wins on that. What separates them is the arrangement underneath: who needs an account, what the app knows about your shopping, and what happens to your cards when the company changes its mind.
| Account needed | Works with no signal | Watch app | Offers or ads | How it earns | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CardJar | No | Yes, entirely | Wear OS, with a tile. No Apple Watch app | None | It does not, yet. Nothing about you is for sale |
| Klarna (where Stocard went) | Yes | Signed-in app | No | Yes | Payments and retailer partnerships |
| Apple Wallet | Apple ID | Yes | Apple Watch | No | Part of the platform |
| Google Wallet | Google account | Yes | Wear OS | No | Part of the platform |
| FidMe | Yes | Signed-in app | No | Yes, prominently | Cashback, offers, receipts |
| Key Ring | Yes | Signed-in app | No | Yes, prominently | Advertising and retailer offers |
| mobile-pocket | Optional | Yes | No | Yes | Retailer offers |
Compiled from each product's own store listing and published description. Apps change; if something here is out of date, please say so and it is corrected on this page.
Three things that decide it
Does it need an account?
An account turns your cards into a profile: a record of where you shop, held by somebody else.
CardJar has no sign-up at all, so there is no profile.
Does it work when the network does not?
The refrigerated aisle of a large supermarket is one of the worst places for mobile signal you will stand in all week, and it is exactly where you need the card.
CardJar keeps your cards and the whole list of shops on your phone, so it works just the same in aeroplane mode.
Who is the app actually for?
A wallet inside a payments app is a way to open the payments app. A wallet with offers in it is a way to sell offers. Neither is built around getting you to the barcode faster.
CardJar does one thing: shows your card at the till.
App by app
Klarna, where Stocard's users were sent
Klarna acquired Stocard in 2021 and folded the wallet into its own app; the standalone Stocard app has been retired. It works, and it is free, and it is a buy-now-pay-later product with a card wallet inside it. If what you wanted was a loyalty wallet rather than a payments app, that is a fair reason to look elsewhere.
The full Stocard comparison, and how to bring your screenshots across.
Apple Wallet
Excellent for what it holds, and what it holds is decided by the retailer rather than by you: a card gets in when the shop issues a pass in Apple's format. Plenty of loyalty schemes never have. For the rest, you end up with a second app anyway. Which big UK schemes issue a pass, and which do not.
CardJar is on the App Store too, so on an iPhone the two sit side by side: passes the retailer issues in Apple Wallet, everything else in CardJar. CardJar has no Apple Watch app.
Google Wallet
The closest mainstream comparison on Android: it will take a loyalty barcode, it works offline once a card is in, and it reaches Wear OS. It is also tied to a Google account and syncs your cards to Google.
If you are happy for Google to hold the list, Google Wallet is a good choice. CardJar is for people who would rather it did not.
FidMe, Key Ring and mobile-pocket
Long-running, capable apps with big lists of shops, and all three lean on offers, cashback or advertising. That money keeps their lists bigger and more up to date than a one-person app can always manage.
The trade is the usual one: a wallet that earns from what you buy has to know what you buy. If that suits you, they are good apps. If it does not, try CardJar.
The plastic ones on your keyring
Genuinely private, entirely offline, never updated without your consent, and completely useless on the day you leave them at home. Which is, in the end, the whole reason any of these apps exist.
Where CardJar is honestly worse
What CardJar does not do, so you know before you install.
No Apple Watch app. Wear OS gets a real app and a real tile. The iPhone app carries no watchOS app, and there is no date for one.
No offers, cashback or points tracking. None planned, either. CardJar shows the barcode and gets out of the way.
509 schemes, not tens of thousands. Across 12 countries, picked by hand, each in the shop's own brand colours. Anything not on the list still works. You just name it yourself.
The watch is English only. The app itself speaks English, German, Polish, Ukrainian, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch, follows the language your phone is set to, and can be switched in Settings. The watch has not caught up yet.
PDF417 codes are scanned but not shown yet. The app tells you when you add one, not at the till.
Common questions
What is the best loyalty card app with no account?
We would say CardJar, but we would. There is no sign-up anywhere in it, and the app itself sends your cards nowhere. The privacy page lists everything it can ever send.
Can I use more than one wallet at once?
Yes, and a lot of people should. Put the cards a retailer issues as a proper pass into Apple or Google Wallet, and everything else into CardJar. Nothing here demands exclusivity.
Which of these works on a watch?
Apple Wallet on Apple Watch, Google Wallet on Wear OS, and CardJar on Wear OS with its own tile and nothing on Apple Watch. How CardJar does it.
Is there an app similar to Apple Wallet?
On Android, Google Wallet is the built-in equivalent: it takes a loyalty barcode, works offline once a card is in, and reaches Wear OS, and it is tied to a Google account. A standalone loyalty wallet such as CardJar holds a card whether or not the shop issues a pass, and needs no account. Every common barcode shows except PDF417, which CardJar scans but cannot show yet.
Can I get my cards out again?
From CardJar, yes: a backup file you keep, locked with a passphrase you choose, and single cards as a link or a file, at any time. Whichever app you pick, check this before you need it.
Just your cards. No account, no offers, no ads.
Free. No account, no sign-up, no email address.