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Contactless payment limit to rise to £100 from 15 October

Contactless- news.jpg
James Flanders
James Flanders
News Reporter
27 August 2021

The contactless payment limit, which is the amount you can spend on card without entering a PIN, will rise from £45 to £100 from 15 October, it's been confirmed. It comes after chancellor Rishi Sunak formally announced the plans in the spring Budget.  

However, as card machines need to be updated to accept the new limit, banking trade body UK Finance warns that it will take some time to be introduced across all retailers. To check if a retailer has updated to the new limit from 15 October, you should either ask in store or follow the prompts on the card payment machine.

Any payments over £100 via a credit or debit card will still require the use of Chip and PIN from 15 October. You can make contactless payments of over £100 using the likes of Apple Pay or Google Pay though, as here there's no cap with the contactless limit determined by the retailer.

The decision to raise the limit from £45 to £100 was made by the Treasury and regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) following a public consultation and in discussion with both the retail and banking sectors.

It follows on from an earlier increase to the limit from £30 to £45 in April 2020. The current £45 contactless card limit is three times the amount it was in 2010. In 2007, contactless cards initially had a limit of £10. This rose to £15 in 2010, to £20 in 2012 and to £30 in 2015.

img-full-news-contactless_card

What does the government say?

Earlier this year, the Treasury said there was no significant rise in reported fraud when the limit was raised from £30 to £45 last year. It added that reported fraud equated to 0.02% of the total spent using contactless cards since April 2020.

Mr Sunak added: “Increasing the contactless limit will make it easier than ever to pay safely and securely - whether that’s at the local shops, or your favourite pub and restaurant. As people get back to the high street, millions of payments will be made simpler, providing a welcome boost for retailers and shoppers.”

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