A check or credit card monitor consisting of a plurality of normally closed switches adapted to be held open by insertion of credit cards or similar items between the switch contacts. The contacts are connected in parallel to a timing means adapted to energize a sensory alarm such as an audio signal, vibrator or light a predetermined time after closure of any one of said plurality of switches.

An appointment reminder device which provides facilities to preset a plurality of independent appointment times and messages with visual and audio indicating means reacting at the preset times comprising cabinet means containing a plurality of message storage areas, a plurality of time selection and indicating means, a plurality of activating means, and a plurality of visual and audio indicating means.

A document retainer (10) having receptacles (14) is provided. The retainer is equipped with clip switch contact sensors (46,50) in the retainer receptacles. Documents (12) held in the receptacles maintain the clip switch contact faces in a spaced relationship by being interposed therebetween. When a document is withdrawn, the contact faces spring into engagement, closing the contacts and thereby energizing an alarm circuit that has audible and inaudible alarms (20,18) to facilitate indication of the document withdrawal. A resetable timing device is provided to suppress the audible alarm for a period considered sufficient for a card transaction. Preferably, the retainer is in the form of a compact module that can be inserted into a receptacle in a wallet or can be attached to another object by use of a provided releasable attachment device. The attachment device is equipped with a detector to sense if the retainer has become detached from the object to which it was originally attached and energizes the alarm circuit in a manner to circumvent any alarm suppression timers thereby energizing the alarms (20,18) immediately.

An alarm system that signals when one or more credit cards are absent from a card stack in the case if the system is enabled. In preferred form, a card stack thickness sensor responds to the stack thickness to determine whether all cards are present in the stack. A first signal device (e.g., a buzzer) in a circuit that includes a single sensor switch operated by the card stack thickness sensor informs the case's owner when not all cards are present if the circuit is enables. A second signal device (e.g., one or more of the cards, or a separate flag) that is projectable from and retractable into the case's interior is operated by a circuit enabling switch, this switch being manually controlled for enabling the circuit when the case is to be stored (the second signal device being disabled, i.e., the indicator being retracted into the case, when the circuit is enabled) and for disabling the circuit when one or more cards is intentionally removed from the case for use (the second signal device then being enabled, i.e., the indicator being projected from the case, when the circuit is disabled). The second signal device alerts the case's owner that the circuit has been disabled if that is the fact that the circuit has been disabled if that is the fact in the event the owner tries to inadvertently return the case to a pocket in the owner's clothing or to the owner's purse without first enabling the circuit by retracting the second signal device into the case's interior.