As a person who forgets their wallet at home more often than their shopping bags, the ability to pay for my groceries with my smartphone has saved me more times than I care to admit.

Contactless payments using a smartphone, smartwatch or wearable have become rather popular over the last two years, particularly among FNB customers.

The bank reports a 1 000 percent increase in payments using a smartphone, tablet or smart watch over the last year.

That’s not all, however, as FNB goes on to say that the value of QR Code payments is up 40 percent year-on-year and tap to pay on physical cards transactions had increased in value by 85 percent year-on-year. By contrast, cash withdrawals have decreased by 11 percent.

“We’re delighted to be enabling this migration by offering our customers a wider choice of industry-leading payment solutions on our digital platform. New ways to pay allow consumers, merchants, and providers to improve safety and convenience in the payment ecosystem. Furthermore, the growth trend confirms our view that digital is central to the future of payments and we are encouraged by the sustained levels of adoption amongst our customers,” says FNB Retail chief executive officer, Raj Makanjee.

This is not to say that FNB is averse to cash as it does still have ATMs and allows for cash withdrawals at till points for free at Checkers, Pick n Pay, Boxer and select Spar stores.

We’re sure that support for payment services such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and FNB’s own Virtual Cards have helped more folks test the waters of contactless payments. Anecdotally, we prefer this method of payment as it’s less of a fuss and more convenient.

With that having been said, if you are using contactless payment solutions on your smartphone, be sure you set a strong password and you are familiar with the process of locking and wiping your smartphone remotely for Android and iOS.