The young people have spoken: wallets are weak. Go digital.

For a growing number of young people, a wallet filled with cash and cards is as unfashionable as millennial socks, no-show socks and skinny jeans. For the cool kids, carrying only a smartphone is the solution. Iykyk – that’s “if you know, you know”, for those who don’t know.

I, Brian Chen, a graying 39-year-old tech columnist, am not among those who know. It is unfathomable for me to part with my wallet, which contains crucial items such as my driver’s license. So in an effort to be hip again, I recruited my 23-year-old colleague Yiwen Lu to ask the young people how they live like this, and then I took the plunge myself.

By ditching my physical wallet, I join the ranks of young people like Ruby Hegab, a 19-year-old college student from Fremont, California. As soon as she got her first credit card last year, she said, she went all-in on using her iPhone to pay for groceries, parking meters and restaurant meals, and on carrying insurance cards.

“If a store doesn’t accept Tap to Pay, I don’t give them business,” Ms. Hegab said. But that rarely happens, because the vast majority of merchants she visits, including major retailers and mom-and-pop stores, now accept some form of mobile payment from services like Apple Pay and Venmo.

In a digital payments survey of just over 2,500 Americans, about 80 percent of Gen Z respondents said they used mobile wallets, and of those, half wanted to use their phones for much more than just paying for things, according to recent data from Pymnts Intelligence, a research firm that studies trade.

Younger people are increasingly using their phones for purposes that older adults would use a traditional wallet for, such as carrying documents such as driver’s licenses, boarding passes and event tickets. Some of these digital items can be added to Apple and Google’s wallet apps, while others, such as insurance cards, can be downloaded through third-party apps.

The change in behavior is a reflection of how far mobile wallets have come. About a decade ago, when I reviewed the emerging mobile payment apps, most people shrugged at the technology because tapping a phone on a scanner was no more convenient than swiping a credit card. In recent years, amid a global pandemic that pushed people to make contactless payments, Apple and Google expanded their software to support digitized driver’s licenses and transit cards, a perfect storm that has made mobile wallets more useful.

I braved it for a week without a wallet and only used my phone to run errands; going to bars, eating out and going to the movies; and even buy crab from a fishing boat. The phone sufficed in almost all of these situations, although paying for dinner was more complicated and using a digital driver’s license to buy wine at a supermarket was a nonstarter.

If you’re hoping to throw away your wallet or just want to reduce some bulk in your pocket, here’s what you need to know.

Payments

Many stores allow Android and iPhone users to use Google Pay and Apple Pay by tapping their phones on readers next to the cash register. Many small businesses, such as food trucks, accept payments through third-party apps such as Venmo, which allow you to scan a barcode to send money.

Still, there is an inherent risk in relying entirely on a mobile wallet. Abi Hoyer, 21, from Punta Gorda, Florida, said she didn’t carry a wallet for security reasons: in the event of a robbery, a thief would only get their hands on her phone. Still, thieves may be able to make payments and withdraw money from your account if they do has forced you to share your passcode.

That is why it is important that iPhone users activate a new security feature in the so-called settings Protection against stolen devices, which prevents access to data such as passwords and stored credit cards when the device is in an unknown location. And Android users should be aware of the steps to lock and clean data of the device in case of theft.

Furthermore, not all companies accept mobile payments. Ms. Hoyer learned this the hard way at Walmart when she discovered she was unable to pay for her items and did not have her full credit card number to sign up for the store’s wallet, Walmart Pay. One solution: Password management apps like 1Password and Bitwarden can securely store sensitive data, including credit card numbers, in case you need to look them up.

Jillian Gillespie, 27, of Chicago, switched to Apple Pay after losing her wallet more than a year ago, she said. This works fine for fast-casual restaurants where you pay at the counter, but at sit-down restaurants where waiters hand over a bill and expect to use a credit card, you may occasionally have to rely on friends to pay. In those cases, she typically uses Venmo to pay her friends back.

“I don’t really carry my wallet with me because it can come and bite me in the butt sometimes,” Ms. Gillespie said.

I encountered similar problems. Of the three restaurants, only one brought a reader that allowed me to tap my phone to pay, while the others asked for a credit card, which my wife had to pay for.

Insurance cards and other documents

Digital scans or photos of important documents such as health and car insurance cards are now widely accepted as a substitute for the real thing. Some insurers, such as State Farm, Aetna and Anthem, make their digital cards available through their apps, which can be added to your mobile wallet. However, not all insurance cards work this way, and it can be difficult to find those cards at a moment’s notice. You don’t want to be stuck searching through photos or finding the right app to load your insurance card after a car accident. , for example.

I found that the easiest method to easily look up insurance cards is to add images of them all to one digital note saved on your phone. On iPhones, open your insurance card photo, tap the button in the bottom left corner and select the Notes app to save the image to a new note. Then rename the note ‘Insurance Cards’.

Likewise, Android users can use the Google Keep note-taking app. In Keep, tap “Add Image” at the bottom. Then choose the photo of your insurance card and label the note.

Other types of cards and documents, like my Clipper transit card, movie tickets, and gift cards, were all easy enough to digitize: Tapping the Add to Apple Wallet button loaded them into my Apple Wallet app.

Identification

Digitized versions of driver’s licenses still exist relatively new and being tested in several states, including California, Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland and Utah. This is where the mobile wallet falls short.

For example, here in California you sign up for the digital driver’s license via the California Department of Motor Vehicles app. The app generates a temporary barcode that can be scanned to verify your age and identity. Airports in some states are now displaying signs saying they will accept the digital ID of those who have signed up for the Transportation Security Agency’s PreCheck program — but many states have yet to participate in this experimentmaking it impractical to leave your driver’s license at home.

The digital ID is also not yet an acceptable replacement for a physical driver’s license. The California DMV says law enforcement cannot accept the mobile driver’s license if you are pulled over, and Arizona’s Motor Vehicle Division says people should still carry a physical ID.

When purchasing alcohol at several supermarkets last week, cashiers were unfamiliar with the digital California driver’s license and did not have a scanner to check the barcode. And at a cocktail bar, a bouncer refused digital IDs and demanded physical cards.

In the event of an emergency, it may also be difficult for someone to identify you. Apples Medical ID card and Google’s Personal safety Features can be set up to show people your name, age, and emergency contacts by pressing a shortcut on the phone, but medical providers need to know how to use the feature.

So it is best to carry a physical ID with you. To do that without carrying a wallet, you could do what some younger people do: place the ID between your phone and the phone case. I found that to be an imperfect solution because the card brings the phone closer to the edges of the case, making the screen more susceptible to damage if dropped.

After a week, I decided on what I thought was the best solution: a magnetic wallet that attaches to the back of my phone and only holds two cards: my ID and one credit card.

That felt like cheating. But Ms Hegab, the 19-year-old, admits she uses a similar card holder just to carry her driver’s license.

Once digital driver’s licenses work everywhere, she says, she will get rid of them.