Retailers love finding new ways to part us from our cash.
Contactless payments via debit and credit cards are the current hot topic for retailers in the UK, and these payments have been on the rise for the last year (Apple Pay, you are still a niche product).
The thing is, most people didn't like the idea of a card reader being used to "bump" our cards and take a small sum of money from us - It felt (and still does feel) like we, as customers, are being removed from the payment loop.
When CHIP and PIN was introduced, I sighed with relief: Too many retailers would question the faded signature on my debit card (if they even bothered to look at it, that is). But contactless payments are a step too far for many people.
Admittedly, I've used it a handful of times in small Co-op stores. The first time, it seemed "fun": There was an air of novelty about paying for some shopping by tapping my debit card against a terminal.
However, each time that I've used contactless payment, it has been instigated by the cashier - In many cases, cashiers simply don't use these systems, or maybe they lack the training required for them to feel confident in using it - Just like many customers.
The current spending limit on contactless payments is currently £15.
Fifteen quid doesn't buy you much in a convenience store these days.
Most of the occasions that I go into a local Co-op or Tesco, I spend at least a tenner, and often more.
Contactless payments just don't cut it, and it's a bit like the old "five items or less" basket checkouts that were a great idea, before they were abused by everyone in the 1990s.
Soon, however, the spending limit on contactless payments is to be increased from £15 to £30, which is a much more sensible maximum - Though I'm sure that it will lead to a lot of overspending!
There is the remotest possibility that I'm not young enough to fully understand the whole "pay by bonk" (or "tap to pay") thing.
I was in a local shop some months ago and a teenage lad was demonstrating how cool he was to his girlfriend by using his £1.99 phone case from eBay:- What he was trying to do was pretend that his phone had NFC* and he could pay for his purchase using his phone, when in fact his contactless debit card was clearly tucked into a slot in the faux leather case.
It didn't work, so he had to remove the card and use the CHIP and PIN service instead.
* Do any retailers have NFC payments enabled? I've yet to see one.
Contactless payments still have a way to go. NFC is a prime example; manufacturers stick the technology into some mobile phones, but nobody else (retailers or otherwise) has yet found a real use for it. Yes, you can pair your Bluetooth speaker with your NFC-capable phone, but what was so hard about scanning for nearby devices? (Plus you have to haul yourself out of your armchair to tap the two together to pair them.)
These are all solutions looking for problems.
Until payment can be secure, electronic and universal, we will all be making the most of the many, varied methods of handing over currency for services for some time to come.
