The problem with my keychain is that it’s becoming so weighed down with all the little reward program cards for stores I frequent that it ends up barely hanging off some finger because it can’t fit into my pocket when I’m out with the kids and haven’t bothered to grab my whole handbag. Well finally someone has come up with a genius tech solution.

CardMobili may be just the app I’m looking for. It lets you input all your rewards cards and creates a scannable barcode directly from your phone for each card. How great is that?

There are so many store cards loaded into the app, it’s likely that every one that’s on your keychain is already included. If not however, you can add your rewards card manually and it will be sent to the company’s database for approval. Plus it keeps a log of all your accounts online so you can access it any time.

One benefit that I like–once you add in membership numbers, CardMobili scans for relevant deals and sends them to you via the app. Free coffee from Einstein Bros. Bagels? I’m so there.

While it’s free, as with many apps you do have to create an account with them so if you’re one of those people with Big Brother concerns this won’t be for you. (Then again, you probably don’t use the reward cards in the first place.) The other caveat is that some of the barcodes may not scan very well at merchants, depending on what kind of technology they use. That said, it’s easy enough for the cashier to manually type in the number.

I’d imagine this is going to be the shopping way of the future. -Jeana 

CardMobili is a free app for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia, Windows 7 and Vodafone devices. Visit the website for more details.