Mastercard^® has mandated that by January 1st 2020, all card terminals across Europe must have contactless functionality. Seeing as K Ring’s powered by Mastercard, and with a mere six months to go until the deadline, we felt it was high time to start doing some serious research to see just how ready retailers are. Then we spotted an ad for Taste of London – London’s fab foodie festival – and we knew exactly where to kick off our research. Or maybe we spotted the ad first, and then decided to justify the trip as “research”? Can’t remember, exactly … but it was definitely one or the other.

Anyway. Excited and hungry, we headed down to Regent’s Park for opening night, brolly in hand and contactless payment ring on hand (you don’t get more prepared than that in this country) and were instantly halted in our endeavours by a queue of what we estimated to be over a hundred billion people … but that may have been the heady aromas and enticing melodies playing with our minds.

Finally, we were in, swept along by a drooling crowd in a freebie-feeding-frenzy. But we weren’t there for the freebies; we were sporting K Ring, the smart ring which actually makes paying for stuff fun – mostly for the incredulous looks on people’s faces when you fist-bump a card terminal. There’s nothing more boring than a freebie when you’ve got a K Ring. Seriously.

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