If you get anxiety about trying to line your device up with a terminal to make a contactless payment, here's some good news: the NFC Forum has announced that version 15 of the standard is quadrupling the distance of contactless connections, from the current 0.5 cm (0.19 inches) to 2 cm (0.78 inches).
A radical increase. Although I can see how it would be good for smartwatches.
At any rate it will take half a decade before terminals and devices both start commonly using R15 of the NFC standard.