Last updated: 20 March 2014
We are just one day into our Contactless Challenge and the competition is already in full swing. At 5pm on Day One, Ewan and Jon were neck and neck on points, but with a full nine days of competition remaining there’s still everything for our two cashless crusaders to play for.
After some initial frustration at his local train station, Ewan quickly got into the swing of things, notching up his first transaction in rather unassuming surroundings. Timpsons, a staple of the British high street and purveyor of shoe repairs and key cutting services, may not seem the most high-tech venue for a contactless transaction, but was happy to oblige Ewan with a pair of shoelaces in return for a quick swipe of his Samsung Galaxy S3. You can watch how he got on in the video below.
He soon got into his stride, with quickfire successful transactions at Pret a Manger and McDonalds, but suffered a setback at Holland & Barrett, who were unable to accept his phone in return for a suspiciously large bag of Cola Cubes.
Jon, after failing to secure his NFC-enabled coffee, found success after accepting a bizarre challenge from Raymond Lee to top up his mobile phone credit using… his mobile phone. Having supplied photographic evidence of his transaction, this scored him a whopping 15 points.
At the time of writing, scores were neck and neck, but the leaderboard below updates in real-time, so keep an eye out for live updates! We’ve already learnt plenty about London’s ability to handle contactless transactions, and with plenty more to come over the next week, be sure to keep your eyes peeled here on the blog, or follow the action live on the hashtag #GemaltoNFC.
And if you have any off-the-wall challenges for our intrepid payment pioneers to get their teeth into over the coming days – which can help them win by boosting their points by 15 – do share them with us below or tweet us @Gemalto.
The scores so far...
Total Scores:
Ewan MacLeod scores 153 points
Jon Choo scores 227 points
