Chart of the week: tap and pay takes off

Contactless card transactions have rocketed. In the first half of 2017 we spent £23bn by contactless, almost as much as the £25bn for the whole of 2015.

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It's easy and convenient to tap and pay. No wonder, then, that contactless card transactions have rocketed in recent years 470 million transactions took place in June alone, notes Hugo Greenhalgh on FT.com.

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Ben Judge

Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.

Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin. 

As an early adopter of bitcoin, Ben bought when the price was under $200, but went on to spend it all on foolish fripperies.