Contactless Payment Limit to be Increased to £100 from October.
You’ll no longer have to enter your PIN for any purchase under three figures. Shoppers will be able to part with as much as £100 without ever entering their PIN from October.
The payment limit for contactless cards is set to more than double on October 15, to £100, the Treasury has announced. It follows the decision to raise the limit from £30 to £45 in April 2020.
The national roll-out comes after public consultation and works with the retail and banking sectors by HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority.
It’s said that making higher payments, which could cover things like a weekly shop or a fuel refill, quicker and easier, will offer a “boost” to retail and hospitality sectors in the wake of the pandemic – as well as reducing potentially infection-spreading contact with card machines.
Whilst the change will be made on October 15, it won’t automatically come into force in all shops, as terminals will need to be updated to accept the new limit.
To check if a retailer has updated to the new limit, people are advised to either ask in-store or follow the prompts on the card payment machine when paying.
There continues to be no limit on mobile payments through platforms like Apple Pay or Google Pay which do not have an upper limit when authenticated through biometric technologies like fingerprint or facial recognition.
David Postings, Chief Executive of UK Finance, said: “Contactless payment has proved very popular with consumers and an increasing number of transactions are being made using contactless technology.
“The increase in the limit to £100 will allow people to pay for higher value transactions like their weekly shop or filling up their car with fuel.
“The payments industry has worked hard to put in place the infrastructure to enable retailers to update their payments systems so they can start to offer their customers this new higher limit.”
Chancellor Rishi 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 made be simpler, providing a welcome boost for retailers and shoppers.”
