Travel Tips

Helpful and Convenient Travel Gadgets: The Best Money Clips

Money ClampWhen traveling, many road warriors advise against carrying a wallet in your back pocket.

A wallet stuffed full becomes huge, inefficient and, most of all, tempting to pickpocketers.

Some travelers solve this problem by using a rubber band or binder clip to hold their cards and bills in one stack, tucked deep into their side pocket.

But these days, money clips have become an even more efficient and attractive solution for travelers hitting the road … 
Money clamp ZurichThe Clamp

From Beza comes the Money Clamp. It’s a spring-loaded clamp with hinged wings that fold back—sort of a fancy binder clip.

It’s designed to hold a few up to 25 bills and a dozen cards. It’s somewhat utilitarian constructed from sheet metal, but it works with a small to medium size stash. From $20 to $90. www.beza.biz

Duck Bill

duck-bill.gifThe Duck Bill is a simple design, made from a single piece of stainless steel. It holds about 10 credit cards and 10 bills at one time. The polished stainless steel is bent to make it easy to slide on and off while maintaining its grip over a wide range of capacity.

It’s a little bulkier than the others with its curved tip. It costs $36 or $46 with your name engraved in script. www.duckbilldesign.com

M-ClipM-Clip

My favorite of the bunch, the M-Clip is a cleverly designed money clip that holds the largest capacity of cards and bills (up to 20 cards and 10 bills). It’s manufactured in the United States, machined by hand to strict standards.

The clip uses a strong stainless steel spring that clamps the stack of cards and bills together firmly; two fingers slide out from the clip to provide ample leverage to open, and then slide back to keep it as small as possible. The M-Clip is available in more than a dozen materials and finishes, ranging in price from $99 to $260. www.m-clip.com

By Phil Baker for PeterGreenberg.com. Check out Phil’s blog at blog.philipgbaker.com. Phil’s book, From Concept to Consumer, is available in stores and online.