[Closed] bPay Loop (AIBU content)

Inspired by the recent discussion on NFC, I bought a [url= https://www.shop.bpay.co.uk/loop ]bPay Loop[/url]. I have a smar****ch but it's lacking an NFC chip, so I figured it'd be a handy thing to have (especially if I leave my debit card at home, which happens sometimes when I pay for something online and with the giddy rush of retail therapy forget to put it back in my wallet). It was £20 for what is essentially a glorified SIM card (it's literally the same form factor, only with an NFC chip and antenna rather than a SIM chip) and a little rubber doofer to attach it to a watch strap. Overpriced IMHO, but I figured what the hell.

It turned up today so I've set it up. You pair it to a bank card, and I figured it'd work just like the NFC in the card itself. Right? Wrong. It's a 'wallet' / top-up system, so you have to transfer an initial balance to it and then either faff about topping it up manually or set it to auto-top up. Even then, you can't set it to top up to an amount, rather you set a threshold balance and a fixed amount (min £10) to top it up by if if falls below that. So, to have it reliably pay for £30 transactions I need to have £40 assigned to it in perpetuity. Ie, the thing has basically cost me £60, if I'd realised that's how it worked I'd never have bought it.

AIBU (sorry, Mumsnet) in feeling a bit bloody jibbed here? Granted it does mention top-ups on the website so it's probably my own fault, but I either didn't read it properly or didn't notice. I've half a mind to send it back, though you've to destroy the packaging to get into the thing and they'd probably be arsey about it.

Bah.