My banks provide different colour options for their cards. All my digital cards differ, even from the same bank. The alternate colours helps within the banks/ apps as well as within Wallet, so it's not just an iOS "workaround".

I agree, it would be nice if Apple added stickers, but the problem isn't, IMO, as bad as you make out.

Exceptions include transport and concert tickets. Most of the time this doesn't cause problems because I'm standing with the other people I'm travelling/gigging with, and the agent scanning the tickets doesn't care about any names on them.

> My banks provide different colour options for their cards.

I'd like to take a moment to appreciate a tiny "UX feature" that punches above its weight: When multiple physical cards have different base-colors to their plastic, visible along the edge.

This reduces how often you even need to check the face of a card. With several in one sleeve/stack, you can slide out the one you want, knowing that (for example) blue is credit, green is debit, red is the shared family one etc.

With my kind of wallet, if I had to pick I'd rather customize the edge-color versus the faces.

> but the problem isn't, IMO, as bad as you make out.

But it is exactly as bad as they describe it. My bank doesn't provide color options for my cards, and there is no way to distinguish my two cards aside from the displayed four digits.

...so you keep the one you primarily use in the front of your card slot in your wallet, and the one you don't use often behind your other cards.

Apple wallet solves this in a similar way, letting you arrange the order

Yes, I can try to memorize the order of the cards. What a lousy workaround, and absolutely no reason to defend poor UI design.

I didn't know I could do that, so I just gave it a try.

First instinct, double tap the side button to open Wallet. Couldn't rearrange the cards there. So,I opened Settings app and couldn't rearrange the cards there. Finally, I opened the Wallet app and found I could rearrange cards there, though there's no visual indicators that I can. I accidentally changed my default card on the first attempt.

The fact that the double-click shortcut opens the Wallet app in a functionally limited but visually identical mode is terrible UI design.

On the other hand, I’d hate to accidentally rearrange my cards while trying to party with an alternate one.

I find it very strange - I don’t really know what to make of it.

I have the wallet shortcut in my control centre. If I use it while on the Home Screen, I end up in the wallet app where I can rearrange and change settings for the cards. If I swipe down the Notification Centre, on my still unlocked phone, and then also swipe down the control centre, and then use exactly the same shortcut, I now end up in the “double-click to pay” version of the wallet, with no rearranging.

Sometimes there seem to be two different apps - the transition to the full app is a sideways transition, while the double-click version slides down from the top of the screen.

However, if I am in the full wallet app, with rearranging options available, and I double-click, it changes the wallet app to the double-click to pay version with no transition.

I notice I am confused!

That's not universally true.

I have a shared checking account with my spouse. Both my personal card and shared card are the same, save for the actual card number.

Same here. I'm in the US. I actually thought Credit/Debit cards had to have YOUR "full" name on them.

My wife and I share MANY accounts, and none of our cards have a "shared" name on it.

The only information sent to the card processor is the swipe (number expiration date) and sometimes the zip code and verification code on the back (if entered by hand).

When my wife worked retail (20+ years ago), she had to verify the name on the card with the name on the machine with the name on their ID. They caught a decent number where the machine had a different name pop up than the card showed. And WAY more when comparing both to their ID.

They called her "The Bulldog" because of how vigilant she was about it. That store lead the region in CC Fraud. But soon they were the bottom of the region in shrink and loss prevention.

I worked retail for a bit in high school. I tried to check card vs ID name for about a week before the manager told me to cut that shit out - too many wives, kids, etc using "dad's" card (this was 1994, so it was almost exclusively dad's card - I imagine that's changed in the last 30 years).

Requiring additional ID for low-value credit card transactions is not necessarily good security from a customer standpoint, as it increases exposure to identity theft by store employees to reduce the relatively minor risk of small, easily reversible fraudulent transactions.

Is a card present transaction generally "easily reversible"?

At least in my experience the "name on the machine" back then was just read from the magstripe - I had access to a track 3 writer and had some fun copying my credit card info onto my driver license and swiping that.

> the "name on the machine" back then was just read from the magstripe.

It is (or was last time I played with card readers). But a person would sometimes use a stolen card with their name on the physical card so it matched their ID.

I guess people weren't updating it digitally? Maybe it was easier to just clone a card onto a card you already have?

> The only information sent to the card processor is the swipe (number expiration date) and sometimes the zip code and verification code on the back (if entered by hand).

For credit cards? No, that's not necessarily true.

> I have no way to add an alias or distinguish them otherwise.

Seeing ones own name on a physical card also doesn't say say which joint account it is, yours or your partners (my partner and I each have Bank X, and each have a card for the other, which only has our own name, so, I feel your pain).

But, there is a way!

1. Tap the card, then tap the card[123] icon upper right and "Enter physical card information".

2. Either scan the card or type it in. Add the CVV while you're at it, seeing this later requires an additional FaceID.

3. Add "Description" for "Mine" or "Joint" or whatever. (KEY STEP)

When asked if you want to replace the card with same number say yes. It'll stay the same card, same transaction histories, etc., but now have a distinguishing description.

which is much better than nothing, but is a fairly recent addition

I use physical stickers on my cards to tell them apart