Wireless Charging And Phone Wallets Might Not Mix Too Well

Wireless Charging And Phone Wallets Might Not Mix Too Well

As old-school as the technology itself actually is, wireless charging is about to hit the mainstream with the launch of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. But it also raises an interesting question we haven’t thought of before — what if you have an iPhone case that you keep your credit cards in?

Jack Norton, chief nerd at Belkin — his official title is Director of Electrical Engineering, but, y’know, let’s all be honest with ourselves — told Gizmodo that it might cause an issue:

“The thickness of the case will impact the efficiency of wireless charging. The Belkin BoostUp Wireless Charging Pad is engineered to work with most lightweight cases (up to 3mm thick) — so in this scenario it could depend on the thickness of the case. Also, most credit cards have a chip and this might be big enough to trigger the foreign object detection safety feature that turns off the power transmission if something other than a valid charging device is on the charging pad.”

This is not something we have tested specifically for in our labs yet and if we do, we will be happy to report back on those results!”

So there you go. The jury is still out, but it seems that putting a tap-and-pay credit card on your wireless charging pad might interrupt your phone’s wireless charging — not because it’ll catch fire or fry your phone or your credit card, but because the wireless charger will go into a safety mode.

We’ve also contacted Samsung, long-time wireless charging devotees, to see if they have any extra info to add. We’ll let you know what they say. Do you use a wireless charger for your phone? Do you also use a case with your credit cards in it? Want to give it a go for us? [Belkin]


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