One arrived in the post for me this morning and after an hour or 2 pondering yay or nay I thought sod it and stuck it on the back of my Xperia S.

Now obviously it advertises your phone is worth nicking so I tried to put my Roxfit case on but the sticker is too thick but happily a casemate case fits ok.

A couple of questions, has anyone actually used the system and as the Xperia S and many new phones are able to use NFC why bother with the sticker in the first place?

I put mine on then realised if the phone is lost then the thief can use it anywhere plus flashing it in public is not a good idea. I think Barclays came up with a good idea but its now dead in the water. NFC is coming to the UK soon with Google Wallet where you will be able to enter which cards you want use - much safer than an obvious out loud tag on the phone.

Like I said you can't see the tag on my phone. By law because of the nature of the system they have to refund all fraudulent transactions if the worst happened. TBH if I lost my wallet there is 3 cards in it that can be used in the same way.

I've used it most days since being sent a sticker, and had no problems. The likes of Cafe Nero, Eat, Pret a Manger, Pod and Tescos have all accepted the sticker with no issues. To be honest, I've subsequently realised that I have the technology on my existing debit card and Visa and Mastercard credit cards, without realising it, so never used them.

So mastercards have NFC? That's interesting as I have 2 VISA with NFC but none of my MasterCards have NFC. I'm making a phone call tomorrow I'm a diamond customer for god sake were meant to get everything first lol

Any cards can have NFC and they all work on the same EMV standard so work with the same machine(Assuming the merchant takes that type of card. Ie. Visa, Amex, diners etc.). My American Express Gold Card has Expresspay (Which is the same as PayWave etc.)

My Virgin credit card MasterCard also has it.

American express gold hey, OHH how the other half live. My partner has an American express but it's just the basic card an we find lots of places don't take American express but I guess the gold card is different.

My partner once treated to me to a lovely meal in a posh London place an they wouldn't take American express. I had to pay lol all very embarrassing.

When is Google wallet coming to the UK?

Actually the gold card is free for the first year now and my points pay for the annual fee and travel :P Regarding acceptance its gotten a lot better recently. The only places i find that don't take it are very small shops etc.

I work in New York a lot and its important to have an American Express card as some restaurants will only take Amex.

Although I once went to a restaurant in London once (This was maybe 10 years ago and I had lost my wallet and Amex managed to issue me a replacement the same day but had no other cards) who said they took it on the door and when I went to pay they didn't take it. I kindly walked out as they really couldn't argue. Its no different to saying you take Dollars as well and then not taking it.

Your guess is as good as ours.

Some banks are not even in the contactless payment system. Retailers are slow on this too.

Mastercard call it Paypass - Visa call it Paywave, but they are compatible. Not all banks are issuing the cards (or the tags).

Indeed. American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Discover/Diners all use the contactless EMV standard.

Natwest are very slow on the uptake - my Visa debit and Mastercard credit aren't contactless.

My only experience of contactless payment is when a Canadian friend came over and tried to use his Canadian bank card to pay for something. The till was having none of it (worked fine with the chip).

So I can't say I'm climbing the walls in anticipation.

This will be because they tend to use the old magstripe based contactless called MSD Contactless(So it works with US system mainly, even though use they use EMV chip and pin chips on the cards).

All my cards have it now apart from N&P one and got a message saying they are issuing from September 14th.

My American Express gold, Virgin All in one card, Barclaycard, Lloyds TSB Debit card