Go for a coffee with an Android

Could I survive for 24 hours without cash or cards — and only the new Android Pay to pick up the tab?
No wallet: Android Pay works on phones from HTC, Samsung, Sony and others — and with any contactless machine
No wallet: Android Pay works on phones from HTC, Samsung, Sony and others — and with any contactless machine

I didn’t get off to the best start. Setting up Android Pay on my mobile phone took ages — and buying coffees for colleagues involved running to three different cafes in the pouring rain until I found one that would accept it.

Last Wednesday the latest contactless payment system was launched in the UK, almost a year after Apple set up a similar system allowing customers to pay on their iPhones. To put Android Pay to the test, I left my wallet at home. Could I survive 24 hours using only my smartphone?

Android Pay is accepted at thousands of retailers, from Boots to Waitrose, Costa to Superdrug. It works on most of the Android models released in the past three years — 25m-30m phones