I have been using Bellroy Hide & Seek wallet for about a month now and I decided it is time to share my impressions about it. It is first wallet which is not randomly bought in random store or cheap one from eBay, so this review won't be as constructive as comparison between similar slim/expensive wallets, but more like first impressions how it is to own a nice wallet.

Before this wallet I was using regular leather bifold with a lot of pockets for every possible card and huge compartment for coins. As a regular wallet filled with coins, plastic cards, bills it became very fat and was uncomfortable to carry in back pocket, especially sitting on it in car or office. Once wallet compartments started to tear apart I started to use business card holder as my wallet. It had place for 9-10 plastic cards and if I was lucky, I was able to stuff 1-2 bills there. It was small and sort of practical, but not big enough for everything. I often had to leave cash at home and carry only credit cards. Also I was able to only carry it in my front pockets since business card holder frame is made from aluminum and sitting on it is very uncomfortable.

After months long research for perfect wallet I found Bellroy Hide & Seek. Actually I found it in first minutes, it took me couple months to get courage and compare it to other alternatives before buying wallet that was 7 times more expensive than I usually would spent on a wallet. But I'm happy I bought it. Wallet comes with 3 year warranty for leather and stitching. One thing that surprised me is that Bellroy is Australian company but wallets are dispatched from various locations around the world. Mine was sent from Belgium which is awesome, I got my wallet in less than a week and because it was sent from European Union I didn't have to pay extra tax.

Wallet comes in very nice envelope style package with logo, wallet is packed nicely and secure. You get only 1 small paper card with thank you note and some basic information about wallet, not like other wallets have just fake paper credit card in every compartment. Package looks like is made from recycled materials but it feels premium, which is very nice and says a lot about company.

What was very surprising is that actually it is full size wallet. I was waiting very small card sleeve style bifold. It is little bit smaller than my old bifold but a lot slimmer, with all my cards I carry around every day it was the same width as empty regular bifold I owned before.

So what is inside my wallet? in all of pictures inside wallet is 9 plastic cards, 3 paper business cards, a coin and few bills, count differs from 30 to just 1-3 bills during month, but I can say that 30 bills in wallet feels almost as comfortable as none and walled does not become bulky.

Compartments:

4 quick access compartments in front

1 large quick access compartment for few cards also in front

1 easy access bills compartment

1 not so easy accessible hidden bills compartment

1 very uncomfortable accessible hidden cards compartment inside hidden bills pocket

1 easy accessible coins compartment which is located inside first compartment for bills

1 SIM card compartment, very hard to reach since it is located in the corner of bills compartment

While it is very slim wallet it actually can hold a lot stuff, I found as European that SIM and coin compartments are useless for me. Simply because coin compartment is way too small to hold all of our european coins we carry on daily basis, but I hate to carry ton of metal around anyway so I just throw them in my car, piggy bank or pocket, and SIM slot is in very hard to reach place to be easily usable on daily basis.

The hidden bills and cards compartment is very great feature, It allows to carry larger bills without everyone seeing them, for example in grocery shop queue. And hidden card slot is just compartment where you can hold NFC/RFC cards or cards you barely use in a way they don't bother you leaving quick access slots for cards you actually use on daily basis.

My daily setup is 2 credit cards, drivers license and internet bank code card in 4 quick access slots, passport/ID card, another credit card and 3 business cards in large quick access slot, few bills in first and more in hidden compartment, 1 coin which was gift from my girlfriend in coin pocket and 1 credit card, 1 RFC door card and ADR license in hidden card compartment. With all this wallet still is very slim, comfortable to carry in back pocket while I sit in office or drive in car.

If you want to see more pictures, you can visit Bellroy website: http://bellroy.com/wallets/hide-and-seek-wallet