The Bellroy brand is known for designing high-end leather wallets for all kinds of purposes. With the Bellroy Zip, they have once again delivered a near-perfect wallet and one of the best with a closing mechanism.
Bellroy Zip Wallet Review
Bellroy Zip is a bi-fold, leather, minimalist wallet that features a zip closure mounted at its edges. It has a capacity for up to 10 cards, 15 cash bills, and a few coins, all stored in separate compartments. The zipper that runs from the bottom to the top left corner is an innovative way to secure all contents stored inside from falling out while keeping the folding design of the wallet as well. The Bellroy Zip features strong RFID protection, a flat bills section, and two micro pockets for a SIM card and a phone opening key.
Should you buy the Bellroy Zip wallet?
Bellroy Zip is a great choice for people looking for a new wallet with a traditional design, that has big storage and an option to be fully closed.
The wallet has a classic folding design, with enough pockets for all your cards, cash bills, and even some coins. In addition, it keeps all of the contents safely stored inside with the help of a zip closure that encloses the wallet completely.
The Bellroy Zip should be your first choice if you want a premium wallet that provides all the privacy and security that you may ever need.
Buying
You can purchase the wallet either on the official Bellroy website or Amazon.
I would recommend Bellroy’s web store as the better option overall since they often offer large discounts on their items, including this wallet. At the time of writing, the Bellroy Zip wallet has a 20% discount on it.
Price and value for money
The Bellroy Zip wallet will typically cost you around $109, although you can buy it for less when it’s put on sale.
On the official Bellroy site, the wallet is sometimes offered as low as $85, depending on how lucky you are with their current discounts. Nonetheless, the wallet is great value even at its original price, as it’s made out of exclusive materials that are rarely found in other wallets.
Shipping details
Bellroy offers free shipping for the Zip wallet with delivery in 1 to 5 weeks.
If you want it sooner, you can get the express shipping which costs from $6 to around $18, depending on your country. With it, you will get the wallet delivered in more than 7 business days.
Customer support
You can always get in touch with Bellroy’s customer support team if you want to know more about their products and offers. You can also send them an e-mail at [email protected].
Warranty and returns policy
All Bellroy wallets come with a standard 3-year warranty that covers any defects on the product which were at the manufacturer’s fault. The warranty only applies to wallets bought from the Bellroy store or one of their official partners.
The brand also offers a 30-day free return policy, during which you can send the wallet back if it’s not what you expected. The period is active from the day of delivery, and in order to start the return process, you must first send an e-mail to Bellroy’s support team.
Basics
Bellroy Zip is a multifunctional wallet with a classic design, with a zip that encloses it entirely. The wallet is very spacious and can hold all types of cards and money inside, including coins.
How to use the Bellroy Zip wallet?
The zip closure runs from one end of the wallet to the other. When unzipped, it unfolds like any traditional wallet and has much of the same compartment structure that you are used to seeing.
Along the frame of the wallet runs a large flat bills pocket, a compartment often seen in classic wallets. On the left side, there are a number of card slots stacked on top of each other, while on the right side, there is a magnetic coin pouch that can hold a dozen coins inside it.
Using this wallet is fairly simple, as once you unzip it all of the different pockets are presented in front of you, with quick and easy access to each one of them. It’s great for any occasion, even as a traveling wallet, as it keeps everything organized and safely enclosed inside.
Aesthetics
In a traditional Bellroy manner, the Zip wallet features a clean and smooth one-colored leather surface. The only thing standing out from the clean looks are the Bellroy logo, stitched at the bottom right corner, and the slider from the zip hanging on the side.
Design and colors
The wallet is made with a classic folding design, featuring a metal zip that runs from the bottom left to the top left side of it.
Like any other folding wallet, Bellroy Zip is equipped with lots of compartments on both inner sides of the frame. This provides great capacity.
It is offered in 6 different colors:
- black
- navy
- ocean blue
- racing green
- caramel
- terracotta
Materials
The leather Bellroy uses for all of its items is very special, exclusive eco-tanned leather. It has a sleek finish full of color and durability much greater than any other material used in the wallet industry.
The leather is manufactured in gold-rated tanneries that are part of the Leather Working Group, the world’s leading organization for environmental certification of leather manufacturers.
Clothing style fit
You can wear the Bellroy Zip wallet with any kind of outfit, no matter its purpose and color.
The premium leather will always look great on formal business clothes, but with the big variety in color shades, the wallet is perfectly able of complementing any kind of informal wear as well.
Features
The huge capacity of the Bellroy Zip is aided by numerous practical features that will help the user organize their belongings inside of this wallet.
RFID protection
The rise of contactless payment has contributed to more and more unique ways for thieves to steal your money, now even without making direct contact with you or your belongings. Having sufficient RFID protection is essential if you are using cards with wireless technology in them.
With the Bellroy Zip, you wouldn’t have to worry about any of these misfortunes. The leather frame with full zip encasement has one of the best RFID blocking systems seen in modern minimalist wallets. Any attempt of theft using wireless technology will be unsuccessful and all the information stored on your credit cards will stay safe.
Zip closure
The zip closure is one of the key features of the Bellroy Zip wallet. Minimalist bifold wallets rarely use zips or any other methods to enclose the frame, and most of the time they rely on the wallet simply folding onto itself.
Here, on the other hand, we see a long zipper scattered almost through the entire edge of the wallet, covering two-thirds of the frame. It’s made from metal and is sewn onto a separate piece of leather fabric stitched onto the rest of the leather surface.
Features such as this one make minimalist wallets great, not only for more secure daily use but for long-distance traveling as well. The Bellroy Zip will promptly serve its purpose on many different occasions, including all those adventurous trips where you constantly check for your wallet to see if everything is there.
Coin pocket
Another feature that is rarely found in minimalist wallets is a separate compartment intended for holding coins.
There seems to be an unofficial agreement between almost all of the brands that minimalist wallets should be used for cards only. Sometimes you might find a wallet with a cash pocket as well, but it’s near impossible to find the good old-fashion coin pocket in these models.
Luckily for those that still have to handle coin change every day, the Bellroy Zip comes with a small pocket designed just for this purpose. The pocket is placed on the right side of the wallet and is equipped with a magnet at the top that automatically closes it once you are done using it.
Flat bill compartment
Behind the card and coin pockets, there is a wide flat compartment that you can use to store cash bills inside this wallet. The compartment is as wide as the unfolded wallet itself and can be filled with banknotes from any currency in the world.
At the top right corner of this compartment, you will find two very small micro pockets, designed to hold a SIM card and a phone opening key. It’s a great sneaky feature that doesn’t take any extra space, yet can be very useful if you are traveling abroad and need to switch between two different SIM cards for your phone.
How many cards can the Bellroy Zip wallet hold?
The brand has suggested that you can realistically fit around 8 cards in the Bellroy Zip wallet. If your cards are non-embossed (have a fully flat surface) you might end up fitting up to 10, but that’s probably as high as you can go.
How much cash can the Bellroy Zip wallet hold?
With such a wide and thick cash section, you can store as many as 15 bills inside the Zip wallet.
Size and dimensions
When folded and closed, the wallet has the following dimensions:
- width: 4.8 in / 12.2 cm
- height: 3.9 in / 10 cm
- depth: 0.7 in / 1.8 cm
Thanks to the large pockets, fairly solid depth, and many features that add substantial heft, the wallet weighs around 3.2 oz / 90.7 gr.
It’s slightly heavier than other standard minimalist wallets, but it does provide a lot of functionality, so the weight is justified.
Known issues and problems
Bellroy excel when it comes to designing and manufacturing high-quality wallets. There are almost no factory defects found on the Bellroy Zip wallet, and most of its users have reported having quite a pleasant experience with it.
One potential issue that might occur is with the zipper, which can occasionally get stuck midway and need a couple of seconds to get unstuck. The zipper is quite robust though, and in my experience, if you use it with just a little bit of diligence, this will never happen.
Additionally, you will need to watch out for any part of the zip to not get wet, since it’s made from metal and can easily corrode if not maintained. Corrosion, no matter how small, will only harden the grip of the slider and make it harder to use.
How does the Bellroy Zip wallet compare to other minimalist wallets?
If you still can’t make up your mind about this wallet, you should take a look at two of our best alternatives to the Bellroy Zip.
Bellroy Zip vs Coach Zip Card Case
Priced at around $100, the Coach Zip Card Case is one of the other rare minimalist wallets that use a zipper as a closing feature.
Between this one and the Bellroy Zip wallet, however, you can find many differences that put the two into almost separate categories. Unlike the Bellroy model, the Coach Zip Card Case is a one-fold wallet with a flat wide zip pocket for bills and 5 more card pockets placed at the front, on the outer wall.
Notably, it has much less capacity than the Bellroy Zip wallet, and fewer features as well. Aside from the bills and card compartments, and a D-loop attachment hole at the side, the Coach Zip Card Case doesn’t have much else to offer.
In any case, see my Coach Zip Card Case review if you are after a simpler alternative of similar quality.
Bellroy Zip vs Bellroy Travel
The Bellroy Zip and the Bellroy Travel are two of the best high-capacity traveling wallets coming from the Bellroy brand, and probably the best ones you can find on the market in general.
They both are built with the signature folding design, with wide bill sections, and a few smaller pockets in front. The wallets have the same capacity and pockets arrangement and are made from the same materials as well.
However, the Bellroy Travel wallet has no zip closure, or any other closing mechanism at all, and features a passport compartment instead of a coin pocket. It also comes with the signature Bellroy micro pen attached in the middle. With such features, it’s obvious that this is the better wallet for traveling abroad, as it has a whole separate pocket to hold your passport, but you would have to sacrifice the space for holding coins in order to get it.
You can read my review of the Bellroy Travel wallet if you often travel internationally and need a faithful travel buddy to keep your passport.
Who should not buy the Bellroy Zip wallet?
I wouldn’t recommend the Bellroy Zip wallet to anyone looking for a simple wallet without any closing mechanisms. If you want a wallet you can pick a card out of in a second or two, without spending time unzipping and opening it, I would suggest taking a look at some of the open-frame options out there.
The wallet also isn’t a good choice if you aren’t using coins that much. The coin pocket takes about a third of the space in this wallet and would be rendered useless if you don’t have coins to fill it. A wallet that has a few more card pockets in this place instead might be of more use to you.
This is not exactly a cheap wallet, so if you’re looking for a more affordable option, check out my guides on the best wallets under $50 and the best wallets under $30.
Finally, the size of the Bellroy Zip might present an issue for some people. The wallet is pretty wide and can become too thick for most conventional pockets if you fill it with too many contents. If you’ve got tight pockets and want a wallet that is much slimmer and compact, check out something like the Bellroy Hide and Seek instead.
Who should buy the Bellroy Zip wallet?
The Bellroy Zip is a great wallet for those that still use cash bills and coins regularly. Although credit cards are widely accepted in almost any store today, it can be hard to avoid using paper money and the coin change that comes with them altogether. Bellroy is one of the rare brands that has thought of this issue and designed a wallet that provides a nice solution.
I would recommend the Bellroy Zip to anyone who is traveling often and needs a spacious yet secure wallet to hold all of their contents. This wallet has enough space for all your credit cards, banknotes, coins, your SIM card, and a sturdy zip closure to keep it all intact.
This wallet is also great for people who love to have a high-end leather item as part of their attire. The Bellroy Zip is made from premium quality eco-tanned leather and looks really astonishing with almost any outfit. If you are a leather admirer that loves to dress appropriately for any occasion, the Bellroy Zip is one of the best wallets for you.
Overall, I believe the Bellroy Zip is one of the best options for people who don’t care much about the size of their wallet and just want to get the one that looks great and has a big capacity.
Where to buy the Bellroy Zip Wallet from?
Bellroy Zip Specifications
| Type | minimalist |
| Max n. of cards | 10 |
| RFID blocking? | yes |
| TSA compliant? | yes |
| Materials used | leather, steel |
| Height | 3.9 in / 10 cm |
| Width | 4.8 in / 12.2 cm |
| Depth | 0.7 in / 1.8 cm |
| Weight | 3.2 oz / 90.7 gr |
| Features | RFID protection, zip closure, coin pocket, cash bills pocket |
| Water resistance | some |
| Warranty | 3-year |
| Return period | 30 days |
