JINGLE tills will be ringing merrily over the next three weeks, and many of the purchases will be completed with a few jabs on a keypad — thanks to a former IBM electronics wizard.

James Goodfellow invented bank cash machines and the personal identification number (PIN) technology that enables them to operate.

He has received several awards for his achievements, including the OBE, and has now added an honorary doctorate from the University of the West of Scotland.

The down-to-earth genius came up with his creations before he went to IBM, for whom he travelled the world, and is philosophical about the fact that the ‘mega bucks’ from the inventions went to security firm Chubb, who hold the patents.

Many of us will be utilising the 2.7 million ‘hole in the wall’ machines in the coming days to get cash, or pinging in our PIN at ‘point of sale’ terminals in shops, taking all of this convenience for granted.

It’s estimated that James’s inventions are used for around a billion transactions a day around the globe, but that is probably multiplied many times in the run-up to Christmas.

A new survey, in fact, reveals that 16 per cent of men in Scotland admit to putting festive bills on credit cards, compared with 13 per cent of women.

Maybe James has inadvertently made it just too easy for us to be tempted to rack up bills with a buy today, pay tomorrow attitude!