Pete Verdon wrote:

Note the "two wallets" part. One is a solid leather item containing
various cards both financial and otherwise, a varying amount of folding
cash, and usually a fair bit of change. It's fine in a pair of jeans or
other normal trousers, but in a pair of lightweight linen shorts such as
I might change into after work given the current weather, it's like
having a cannonball in my pocket. So at this time of year I also have a
small nylon wallet containing a £20 note and a debit/cash card in case I
need more (I might only be going for a walk round the park, but it's
entirely possible I might bump into a mate and end up in the pub for the
evening).

I don't usually discuss my wardrobe choices on the Internet, but you did
seem very interested.

Well, this does cast some useful light on the matter, but frankly I still
find this, er, policy almost as incomprehensible as the behaviour of women
whose choice of which handbag to take with them takes input not only from
the type of occasion but also from what clothes they'll be wearing. They
must forever be finding themselves missing some essential item which they
left behind in The Wrong Handbag.

I can understand that if your linen shorts only have sewn-in front pockets,
that your "cannonball" might be prone to uncomfortable dangling. I always
avoid any trousers which don't have two proper back pockets. The trick is
to limit the size of your "packet" by having only cards and notes in the
actual wallet, and keeping coins elsewhere. The wallet then goes into one
back pocket, the change into the other, either loosely or in a dedicated
container. You can get fancy leather pouch things for this, with a folding
lid, but I just use a bank coin bag - they wear out more quickly but cost
nothing to replace.

Perhaps it's just that I'm so afraid that any occasional absentmindedness
might result in my wallet or keys being inadvertently left behind in
The Wrong Trousers, that I make a point of always transferring everything
into the ones I'm wearing. This works so well that I feel almost naked
when any of my pockets is empty.

Pete Verdon wrote:
I sometimes find it convenient to keep two wallets in different sets of
clothing. At present, I swap my debit/cash card from one to the other,
but it would be nice not to have to. Is there such a thing as a second
debit card on the same account, like his&hers cards for a couple but
both in my name? I can't see why this presents an intrinsic problem, but
I've never heard of it being offered.

Obviously I could have a second account, but that's a lot of
complication just to avoid swapping cards over when I change from work
clothes into BBQ shorts.

At present I'm with Halifax, but I'm curious whether this exists anywhere.

Cheers,

Pete

I don't know about debit cards, but you can certainly have two (or more)
credit cards with direct debits set up to pay the full balance every month.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
To reply to me directly:

Replace privacy.net with: totalise DOT co DOT uk and replace me with
gareth.harris

At 12:33:08 on 26/06/2009, Chris Blunt delighted uk.finance by
announcing:

On 26 Jun 2009 08:22:16 GMT, "Alex" wrote:

At 04:54:05 on 26/06/2009, Chris Blunt delighted uk.finance by
announcing:

On Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:05:46 +0100, "Roger Mills"
wrote:

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Chris Blunt wrote:


I don't know whether this is possible in the UK, but all
accounts I hold with HSBC overseas allow you to have multiple
account types encoded into a single debit or credit card. I
have my savings, current and credit accounts all encoded into a
single credit card, so I only need to carry one card around
which does everything.
So how does the card know which feature you wish to use on a
per-transaction basis?

The ATM screen asks which account you want to carry out the
transaction on.. You select from "Current Account", "Savings
Account" or "Credit Card Account".

This is not yet supported by all UK terminals. Applications can be
automatically selected based on priorities, but that would still
leave you automatically paying by the pre-selected method at many
retailers.

ATMs wouldn't be a problem, since - as now - they would
automatically select LINK first, then the debit product if LINK
isn't present.

Visa are working on introducing the 'One Card' in the UK, but it
doesn't exist here yet.

I'm fairly sure I did get the choice of which account to use when I
used the card in an HSBC ATM machine in the UK.

Well you won't. UK ATMs make the choice for you (as above).

On 28 Jun 2009 19:11:51 GMT, "Alex" wrote:

At 12:33:08 on 26/06/2009, Chris Blunt delighted uk.finance by
announcing:

On 26 Jun 2009 08:22:16 GMT, "Alex" wrote:

At 04:54:05 on 26/06/2009, Chris Blunt delighted uk.finance by
announcing:

On Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:05:46 +0100, "Roger Mills"
wrote:

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Chris Blunt wrote:


I don't know whether this is possible in the UK, but all
accounts I hold with HSBC overseas allow you to have multiple
account types encoded into a single debit or credit card. I
have my savings, current and credit accounts all encoded into a
single credit card, so I only need to carry one card around
which does everything.
So how does the card know which feature you wish to use on a
per-transaction basis?

The ATM screen asks which account you want to carry out the
transaction on.. You select from "Current Account", "Savings
Account" or "Credit Card Account".

This is not yet supported by all UK terminals. Applications can be
automatically selected based on priorities, but that would still
leave you automatically paying by the pre-selected method at many
retailers.

ATMs wouldn't be a problem, since - as now - they would
automatically select LINK first, then the debit product if LINK
isn't present.

Visa are working on introducing the 'One Card' in the UK, but it
doesn't exist here yet.

I'm fairly sure I did get the choice of which account to use when I
used the card in an HSBC ATM machine in the UK.

Well you won't. UK ATMs make the choice for you (as above).

For most ATMs in the UK you're probably right, but I think HSBC
machines recognise their own cards are can invoke this option when one
of their cards is inserted.

Chris