Contactless transactions for smaller amounts are often offline approved without requesting approval from the bank/network. This takes off the 2-3 seconds of the transaction time.
I curious how much slower the chip (EMV, or or 'old-style) is than the magetic swipe? Here in EU there is not difference, the transaction is done in couple of seconds max and most of this is the time spent waiting for authorization response. The entry mode chip/magtripe/contactless doesn't make that much difference.
The default colour scheme on Putty is not very good in my opinion. know I can change it manually but it would be nice if the default for new connections was better.