according to me It’s a great idea to have all the cards, credentials, procedures and more in one place on your mobile phone. in terms of comfort and practicality and how great applications such as MiDGT or My Citizen Folder are, for example (be careful, the latter only allows you to view the passport, the DNI will come with the DNI 4.0 application). Thanks to this, you get rid of carrying a wallet.

The holy trinity are transportation cards: you have your ID (the app works with a digitized driver’s license), you can pay with cards entered into Google Wallet and even take the subway or bus with your mobile phone. The days of carrying your wallet everywhere are numbered.

I like to have everything on my phone, but it’s a lot of responsibility

…or not. In practice, paying by card on city buses and metro is quite common, but it has one drawback: the unit ticket prices are significantly higher than for passes. So there is this option: Carry your transportation card on your mobile phoneThis is something that is not very common and Madrid, for example, is in the testing phase to implement this with the ‘Virtual Transport Card’ which adds Multi-cards in virtual format. To access public transport with your phone.

It seems like a real step forward, but when it comes down to it, it’s the one I use the most and What makes the difference is that you can top up the card from your mobile phoneLet me explain: I normally keep my wallet handy for two reasons: First, because there are a few documents that haven’t yet been digitized (the DNI is the most obvious example), and second, just in case.

So leaving everything in the hands of your mobile phone carries the risk of not being able to use all these documents if your mobile phone is lost, stolen or runs out of battery. The least important one for me is the transport card, for obvious reasons, but paradoxically This is what I will use most on any trip away from home..

Very little is said about him How useful it is to be able to load the card whenever and wherever you wantnot having to go to a tobacconist or other shops (as in Pamplona) or waiting for a machine in the Madrid metro, which means a huge loss of valuable time or having to adapt to schedules. I use it on my card, but I also charge the card from people around me who are not aware of this function or who think that the technology is not suitable for them.

Transportation card

This application allows you to top up (or check the balance) PUBLIC TRANSPORT CARDS from the Madrid Regional Transport Consortium (CRTM) using NFC.

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Cover | Photo by Ramon Albiol on Unsplash and montage with screenshot of the app

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