The expression wave and pay, used both adjectivally and as an uncountable noun, first began to appear about five years ago, with the first contactless cards appearing in the UK in 2008. The technology goes back a little further however to the late nineties, when oil company Mobil became one of the first to adopt it with their ‘Speedpass’, a special key fob which could be scanned and used to pay for fuel at service stations in the US. Hong Kong was one of the first places in the world to adopt a contactless payment system more widely in shops and restaurants, launching their ‘Octopus card’ in September 1997.

The expression wave and pay, used both adjectivally and as an uncountable noun, first began to appear about five years ago, with the first contactless cards appearing in the UK in 2008. The technology goes back a little further however to the late nineties, when oil company Mobil became one of the first to adopt it with their ‘Speedpass’, a special key fob which could be scanned and used to pay for fuel at service stations in the US. Hong Kong was one of the first places in the world to adopt a contactless payment system more widely in shops and restaurants, launching their ‘Octopus card’ in September 1997.