Plastic or digital loyalty card

Updated 31 August 2026

A plastic card costs money to print and is left at home. A digital card costs nothing to issue and is in the customer’s hand every time they pay. The comparison is not close, but it is worth doing properly before a business orders another five thousand cards.

What plastic costs

The print run is the visible cost, and usually the smallest one. Add the minimum order that forces you to print more than you need, the design that is wrong within a year, and the reissue every time somebody loses one.

Then add the invisible costs: the staff time explaining and handing out cards, and every customer who declined to join because joining meant filling in a paper form at the counter with a queue behind them.

What plastic cannot do

A piece of plastic holds a number. It cannot show a balance, cannot show how many stamps are left, cannot carry an offer, and cannot tell the customer anything at all between one visit and the next.

So the customer never knows what they have. A reward nobody knows they own is a reward that changes no behaviour, which is the most common reason plastic loyalty programs quietly produce nothing.

What a digital card changes

It is in the phone that is already in the customer’s hand at the moment of payment. The balance is visible, the stamp card is visible, and an offer can arrive on a Tuesday afternoon without printing anything.

The balance also lives on the account rather than the object, so a lost phone loses nothing and a new phone restores everything.

The one honest argument for plastic

A card in a wallet is a small piece of advertising, and some customers genuinely prefer a physical object. That is real, and it is why a business can keep printing a branded card if it wants to.

What it should not do is keep the balance on the plastic. On One Bonus the identity can be presented however the customer likes — QR, barcode, NFC tap, wallet app — while the balance stays on the account where it cannot be lost.

Common questions

Is a plastic loyalty card still worth printing?

Rarely. The print run is the smallest of its costs, and a plastic card cannot show a balance, cannot carry an offer, and is not in the customer’s hand when they pay. If you want a physical card for branding, keep the balance on the account rather than the card.

What happens if a customer loses their phone?

Nothing is lost. The balance belongs to the account, not the device. Signing in on a new phone restores every balance, stamp and level exactly as they were.

Do customers actually prefer a card in the phone?

The ones who use it do. The measure is not preference but presentation rate — how often the card is actually shown at the counter. A card in a wallet app that opens from the lock screen is presented far more often than one in a drawer at home.

Stop printing, start recording

Get the app · Register my business