RFID Blocking Sleeves by BLOCKIT RFID Products Review

Hey there.  Have you ever had your credit card information stolen?  I did.  This was a few years ago when some criminal inserted some kind of card reader into the credit card slot at a gas station and managed to steal my information.  Luckily for me, I was alerted right away by my bank of an unusual purchase attempt.  They noted that I never shopped at said store and found it weird.  I told them that it wasn't me and my card was missing.  It was taken care of immediately and I received a new card.  Even though it was caught quickly, I still had to get a new card number, update all of my card information on forms, and make sure that all of my bills that stored my card number was updated.  It can be a pain to have to deal with.  This was the old school way of getting your credit card information stolen.  Now, some cards have what is called a RFID chip in it.  The RFID allows you to pay for items my simply tapping your card on RFID compatible retail locations.  Many fast food locations, supermarkets, and other high traffic areas have RFID compatible point of sale systems.  In a wireless world, it's the next step in credit card technology... but it's also the next logical step for credit card thieves.  Credit card thieves have resorted to RFID skimming.  Basically, a credit card thief will have a small RFID scanner and attempt to read your credit card information wirelessly.  Essentially, this is digital pick pocketing!!!  This is dangerous.  Especially since the thief doesn't need to physically touch you and only needs to be in close proximity.  How many times are you not close to a stranger?  Think about it.  Standing in line at a store, cramped into a bus or subway, or just walking down a busy street.  Someone with a RFID scanner can EASILY scan your card and you wouldn't even know it happened!  Fear not, though, friends.  You can safeguard yourself against this by using RFID Blocking Sleeves.  Our good friends at BLOCKIT RFID Products sent me two RFID blocking sleeves to try out and review.  Simply put, these things work!  Let me tell you about my experience.

This review is going to be short and sweet.  After all, this is a simple credit card sleeve and there isn't much more to say other than it works or it doesn't.  The RFID Blocking Sleeves are uniquely designed with 2 layers of protection.  An interior aluminum layer blocks 13.56 MHz wireless signals and an inner copper layer blocks 125 kHz wireless signals.  Both signals are commonly used RFID readers so this sleeve will protect you from both!  The 2 layers are protected by an outer layer that features one of 6 awesome looking cars.  I got the Ferrari FF Coupe and the Bugatti Venom.  So far, I've only seen car designs on the BLOCKIT sleeves but I'm hoping that in the near future, they'll offer a wide variety of prints.  Not to say that the car prints suck or anything, it's just that it would be better to have the options.  Anyways, the credit card fits snugly into the sleeve and better yet, the sleeve fits fairly well into my wallet.  Both are huge pluses.  If the card didn't fit well or if the sleeve didn't fit in my wallet, I would be more inclined not to use them.  You can choose to have a top loading sleeve or a side loading sleeve.  As terms of options, that's all you get.  Now... for the test.

I walked into my local Target store during our monthly run for stuffs.  When it was time to pay, I pulled out the RFID Blocking Sleeve (with my card inside, or course) and tapped the location on the point of sale machine.  The machine didn't read it.  I tapped it again.  Still no sale.  Decided to give it a go one more time and give it one long tap, but still nothing.  At this point the cashier told me that I I'm doing it wrong and that I need to tap the card itself on the machine.  lol  I played the fool to test this but it was the only way that I could think of that would allow me to test the RFID Blocking Sleeve in a real world situation.  And it definitely passed the test.

There really isn't much more to say about these RFID Blocking Sleeves.  It does what it claims to do and that's all that I want.  I've gone though the whole identity theft thing and it sucks.  Being a victim makes it hard to get everything in order.  Especially now, in this day, where everything is digitally stored.  Reduce the chances of being victimized and get yourself a set of these RFID Blocking Sleeves.  They work!  That's all that there is to it!  If you decide to pick some up, use promo code BLOCKIT6 at Amazon and pick up a set for under $8!  Later!