Ekster Parliament Slim Leather Wallet with RFID Blocking and Quick Card Access
This wallet boasts a plethora of features from its handcrafted premium top grain leather, 6063 T5 aluminum card holder, RFID blocking, and it’s ability to hold 10 or more cards. I put this wallet to the test to see how well the advertisement matches the actual product.
Premium Materials
This Ekster Parliament wallet is handcrafted from premium top grain leather, tanned under gold rated LWG certified protocols. And then it has a 6063 T5 aluminum card holder spot. I can’t tell you from using this for two months how it is going to hold up after years of use but what I can say is that it’s held up with my shenanigans. I could say I did this next part for science while doing this Ekster wallet review, but it was mostly for fun. To see how well it held the cards in, I stepped on it and dropped it down three stories. I’ve also had this in and out of my pocket for the past two months. It still looks as good as the day I bought it. The cards in the card holder did fall out with the three story drop but they stayed in place during the one story drop.
Wallet Capacity
The description says that this wallet should be able to hold 10 or more cards. I only found this to be true when you jam this thing full of cards that do NOT have any raised numbering. However, many credit cards and debit cards do in fact have raised numbers. Because of this, I was only able to comfortably fit 8 cards. If I used a tracker to avoid losing this wallet, I would only be able to fit 7. And that includes a drivers license which is thinner than a credit card.
There was a major flaw with the quick card holder. First off, if you have cards with raised numbering; it won’t fit as many. Then if you only have cards without the raised numbering, you need to keep the wallet upright. Otherwise they’ll slide right out. Credit and debit cards all over the floor for people to swipe. Not to mention whatever is growing on the gas station floor getting onto your cards. No thank you. But, it gets worse. When you press the button to raise up the cards, it flicks them up. They should come up at different heights to allow you to get the one you want, but almost instantly some will slide back down. This made getting the cards out more difficult with the quick release than in a regular pocket.
Additionally, the wallet has an elastic strap to store cash. I struggled to keep the wallet closed with 2 bills folded up in it. It would not close with 3 or 4. It doesn’t seem that realistic to me. Me personally, I usually keep a few smaller bills such as a couple of $1’s in case the tooth fairy needs to make an appearance. One or two $5’s and maybe a $20. This wallet would not close at all with 5 bills folded inside.
RFID Blocking
This wallet has an RFID blocking feature to help prevent someone from walking by you and using a Radio Frequency device to electronically steal your credit and debit cards. After testing it out at gas stations and grocery stores, I discovered that the cards in the pockets do not have any RFID protection. Only the cards in the aluminum pop up holder have the protection. This wouldn’t be that bad if the popup card holder worked properly.
All in all, this was a nice wallet. It didn’t live up to the advertisements in my opinion but it was still a nice wallet. It would be a great fit for someone who is a bit more minimalistic than I am. I need to carry things like my drivers license, debit card, credit card, work credit card, medical and dental cards, concealed carry card, registration and insurance card and I’m probably forgetting something. But it doesn’t meet my needs for a wallet. If you want to see more about this card, check it out here: Ekster Parliament Slim Leather Wallet with RFID Blocking.
If you feel that this wallet is not right for you, check out my review of the Vaultskin Notting Hill Wallet.