What Is RFID Protection?

Most of the cards in your wallet can be read without leaving it. A bank card with the contactless symbol carries a small chip and an antenna that answer when a reader asks, and so does the badge that opens your office door. That's what lets you pay with a tap. It also means a reader held close enough can ask without you knowing.

How a card gets read

RFID stands for radio-frequency identification. A reader sends out a radio signal, the card's antenna picks it up, and that energy is enough to power the chip and make it reply. Bank cards use a short-range version called NFC, which works within a few centimeters. The card has no battery and no switch. If a reader is close and the card is reachable, it answers.

What blocking does

An RFID-blocking wallet puts a conductive layer between your cards and the outside. The layer absorbs and reflects the reader's field before it reaches the antenna, so the chip never gets the energy to wake up. There's nothing to turn on. The cards behind the layer stay silent until you take them out.

How it works in the Speed Wallet™

The Speed Wallet™, Classic and Mini, has a blocking layer built into its body. Pull the strap and your cards come up, ready to take. Push them back and they're covered again.

On the Classic, one pocket is left outside the layer on purpose. Put your transit pass or office badge there and it reads through the wallet at the turnstile, while your bank cards stay covered. In carbon fiber the material itself blocks the signal, so that pocket is covered too, and the Mini has no access pocket. With either one, take the pass out at the turnstile.

What it doesn't cover

Blocking stops a reader from waking your cards through the wallet. Once a card is in your hand, it's readable like any other, and a tampered payment terminal is a separate problem that the blocking layer can't solve.

On a crowded train, with a stranger close enough to touch your pocket, your bank cards have nothing to say.

See the Speed Wallet™ in every material.