Loyalty cards

Add a loyalty card once – everyone in the household has it with them at the till. You'll find them in Shopping, under the Cards tab.

Adding a card

Tap Add card and choose the retailer (or “Other card”). Then you have three options:

• Scan card – hold your plastic card's barcode or QR code up to the camera. patchio detects the code type automatically.
• Upload a screenshot or photo – a screenshot from the retailer's app, say. patchio reads the code straight from the picture.
• Type in the number – patchio generates the barcode from it.

If patchio can't find a code on a picture, you can add the number afterwards, or just save the card as a photo.

At the till

Tap the card – it appears large, black on white, and the screen stays on. This works even without internet, as long as the cards have been loaded once before. Handy, since signal in the supermarket is often patchy.

The number in plain text always sits below the code. You'll need it if the scan doesn't work: some older tills use laser scanners, which technically can't read phone screens. In that case, just tell the till the number.

Who sees which card?

By default, everyone in the household sees every card – that's rather the point. If you need a card just for yourself, say a library card, turn on “Visible only to me” when adding it. Then no one else sees that card, not even an admin.

Whether household members are allowed to share the use of a card is governed by that programme's own terms – many explicitly provide for additional cards or shared accounts.