Travelling light

I cycled into the office today and left my wallet at home. I left
it at home deliberately as I don’t need cash in the office as my Sun
ID card doubles up as a Java Card and
Girovend card allowing we to make purchases from outlets around the
campus.

These so called Smart Cards are coming into use more and more as
financial institutions here have started to roll out (at long last) the
use of use of “Chip and Pin” cards. So when I buy something I can now pay by
debit or credit and enter a personal identification number into
a terminal instead of signing a separate piece of paper.

Hopefully it will not be too long before I only have to carry one Java Card
and the little terminal will offer me the choice of which institution I
wish to transfer funds from.