I’m coming around on contactless. Yes, after a couple of years worth of attempts to use my cards I still see clerks trying to talk me out of using it, but I’m gaining some optimism because the terminals are showing up everywhere. This reminds me of the early days of bill presentment, where the burning question was “how many bills does a consumer have to have available before they are willing to adopt?” Now that question is history, and by a healthy margin more consumers prefer to view consolidated bills and statements at a central financial provider’s site than at individual sites. The industry will have to keep rolling out contactless cards and terminals for some time before critical mass is achieved, but now that the press release claims are more realistic and new contactless-capable terminals keep popping up, I’m starting to see the day when we’ll all be tapping instead of swiping. Combined with mobile banking, we’ll then have the rails in place for the mobile payments revolution.