birdwatching okay: Best Passbook compatible apps for iPhone

Best Passbook compatible apps for iPhone

Passbook can be an incredibly useful tool for storing all kinds of things from boarding passes to loyalty cards to gift cards and more. Unfortunately, the App Store doesn't make it so easy to find apps that are Passbook compatible. While there is a list, it isn't updated very frequently and misses a lot of hidden gems that ourselves and many of our readers have found over the past few months.

So if you're itching to add more items to your Passbook and find an actual use for it, here are our favorites:

Starbucks

If you are a frequent Starbucks customer, the Starbucks for iPhone app is a great way to keep track of your rewards and pay through your iPhone and Passbook. The app is free and you can link any gift cards or loyalty cards directly through it. From there you can reload your balance, merge cards, and most importantly, add your pass to Passbook for easy access.

The Starbucks app includes location services support as well which means your pass will simply pop up whenever you're within the vicinity of a Starbucks location.

Free - Download Now

BillGuard

BillGuard is a service that helps you monitor and track transactions on your credit cards. You'll receive notifications of suspicious transactions as well as updates on balances if you have notifications turned on. BillGuard does all this natively but also has excellent Passbook support. The cards that you'd like to monitor or quickly view balances for can easily and quickly be added to Passbook.

Once added, you can flip over the pass inside your Passbook and see a summary of recent transactions. BillGuard will let you monitor and have passes for three credit cards for free. If you'd like to become a premium BillGuard member, you'll have the ability to add up to 10 cards to your BillGuard account for $9.99/month.

Free - Download Now

Klout

If you're heavily involved in social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and more - you've undoubtedly heard of Klout. If you haven't, Klout basically measures your social influence online and rates you by giving you a score after you link up all your social networks. Your score will fall between 1 and 100, with 100 being the highest. Your score will fluctuate based on your online activity and you'll receive notifications from the Klout app when your score rises or falls.

If you'd like quick access to your Klout score, the official Klout app for iPhone has Passbook support built right in. Once you've signed in and got the app all configured, you can add a pass to your Passbook. It'll show you your current Klout score at a quick glance as well as give you a QR code that your friends can scan to access your Klout profile directly from their devices.

Free - Download Now

AMC Stubs

A lot of theaters (at least state-side) are run by just a few large companies, one of them being AMC. If you visit AMC theaters quite often and you're an AMC Stubs member, the AMC Stubs app is a great way to not only track all the movies you've went to and view your rewards history, but to quickly access your AMC Stubs membership card through Passbook.

After you've added your AMC Stubs member card to your Passbook, you'll notice it will give you a large bar code for employees to scan when you go to the movies. If you have any rewards balances that are currently unused, you'll also see that in the upper right hand corner. If your'e a stubs member and you own an iPhone with Passbook support, this download is a no-brainer.

Free - Download Now

Square Wallet

Square is becoming one of the easiest ways to pay with large chains like Starbucks now accepting it. It's also a very convenient option for small businesses. One feature that a lot of users may overlook with Square Wallet is that you can send other Square Wallet users gift cards instantly. Just find the place you want to send someone a gift card for, choose the gift card option, enter an amount and message, and off it goes.

The receiver will then have the option to store that gift card in their Passbook until they're ready to use it. The same holds true if you've received gift cards to merchants through Square Wallet. You can add them to your Passbook eliminating the need to launch an app in order to use them.

Free - Download Now

Your picks?

There are lots of Passbook compatible apps out there and while these are our favorites, we know that you, our readers, are App Store ninjas as well. Let us know what your favorite Passbook compatible apps are in the comments below!