The invention provides a case for holding a single card, with an opening in the front. A card can be inserted into the front opening until flush with the rear wall. Flexible tabs located on the back or sides of the case are deformed by the
insertion of the card and this elastic deformation provides the retention force for keeping the card within the case in all orientations and use situations. The case is designed for wallet-sized cards. A clip may be attached to the case for mounting on a car
visor, map pocket, or other location either within a vehicle or anywhere else desired. The clip is removable so that another means of attachment, such as hook and loop fasteners, double sided tape, adhesives or any other method may be used to attach the case to any desired location. The case may contain
electronics and sensors for reading the card information, via magnetic strip, RFID or other method. An external surface of the case may contain a visual display for displaying information read from the card or otherwise gleaned from the card information (i.e. via remote connection with a
system which can provide information on the card). The case may also contain one or more buttons on its surface for manually activating features, such as reading or display of the card information or interacting with a
remote system. In addition, it may contain a speaker,
microphone or other audio interface to allow a user to interface with the holder by voice command and audio responses. The
electronics on the
card holder may be able to communicate with a
remote system via any non-contact
information transfer method, such as
RF communication using any number of
standard methods (
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.), ultrasonic,
infrared visual transmission or any other
system available. This connection may be used to obtain data from and send data to any
remote system desired, so that purchase transactions, balance queries or other tasks may be performed in concert with an associated network, where, for example, balance information for the card account is stored or to accept or reject a transaction.