Memo Whiteboard Wallet Review: A Wallet With a Built-In Whiteboard

Introduction

Most minimalist wallets compete on thinness, materials, or card capacity. The Memo Whiteboard Wallet takes a different route entirely: it puts a six-inch whiteboard inside a wallet. Made by New Things Lab and launched through Kickstarter, it is aimed squarely at people who jot things down constantly and would rather not burn through notepad paper to do it.

Who This Product Is For

The Memo is a specialized wallet. If you are constantly taking notes, tracking quick lists, or capturing ideas on the go, the built-in whiteboard is genuinely useful and can save money on notepad paper over time while cutting down on waste. If you rarely write things down, the interior space devoted to the whiteboard will feel like wasted real estate that could have held more cards or cash.

What Makes the Memo Different

The headline feature is a six-inch diagonal whiteboard on the inside of the wallet. It ships with a fine point pen that has an eraser on one end and a cap on the other, with a 0.8 millimeter tip that feels pleasant to write with. The pen is designed to fit inside the wallet itself, so it is always where you need it.

One clever detail: when the wallet closes, the two whiteboard halves never touch. A tiny gap separates them, so notes do not smear or transfer to the opposite side. Erasing is done with the pen’s eraser end, leaving a clean surface for the next note, which also makes on-the-fly corrections far tidier than scratching things out in a notebook.

Build Quality and Design

The Memo is a minimalist clamshell wallet held together by magnets and made from 6063 aluminum, which naturally blocks RFID. Closed, it measures 2.91 inches by 4.25 inches with a thickness of 0.43 inches, so it feels like a genuinely modern minimalist wallet rather than a gadget. The aluminum has a high-quality feel in hand.

The magnets snap shut firmly and stay closed, but they are not so strong that opening becomes a struggle. Small grooves along the edge give your thumb just enough purchase to pry the halves apart. Cards are inserted horizontally from the top, and thumb cutouts on the front and back make retrieval easy.

Card Capacity and Everyday Handling

The Memo holds up to six credit cards, with three fitting on each side. To reach cards behind your most-used one, you simply push them up, swipe through, and grab the one you need. The system works well in practice.

A shake test with six cards loaded went better than expected: even a hard shake did not dislodge a single card, thanks to rubber bumpers inside that grip the cards. The final production version will improve those bumpers along with some whiteboard refinements, though the overall look and style stay the same.

One thing to note: there is no room for expansion. Six cards is the maximum for most card thicknesses, and the wallet stays the same size no matter how many cards you carry, since there is no notebook to fatten up.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The whiteboard space is limited. With a traditional notebook you can flip to a fresh page when you run out of room; with the Memo you can only erase and start over, which becomes a problem if you have a long list of things to capture.

There is also no dedicated spot for cash. The internal rubber pieces that grip cards stop bills from sliding in fully, so carrying cash means folding bills into quarters, which is more hassle than most people want. If you are a cash carrier, this wallet is not a good fit. A future version with a cash clip or strap is possible, but nothing is confirmed.

Finally, note that this assessment is based on a pre-production unit. The final version keeps the same style and look, with quality improvements to the whiteboard and the rubber card tabs, so minor details may differ at launch.

Buying Advice

Buy the Memo if you genuinely write things down every day and want a reusable, always-with-you surface for quick notes. Skip it if you mostly carry cash or rarely take notes, because the whiteboard then trades away space you would use better elsewhere. The Kickstarter campaign is the current way to get one, so check availability there if this fits your habits.

Conclusion

The Memo Whiteboard Wallet is one of the more original takes on the minimalist wallet in a while. It will not replace a full notebook, and cash carriers should look elsewhere, but for habitual note-takers it turns something you already carry into a genuinely useful writing surface.