Contactless pay limit increases to £100 today

HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority made the decision to raise the limit following a public consultation and in discussion with both the retail and banking sectors. It follows on from the successful increase in the limit from £30 to £45 in April 2020.

From Friday (October 15), retailers will accept contactless payments up to the new £100 limit, however, given the number of terminals that will need to be updated to accept the new limit, it will take some time to be introduced across all retailers. To check if a retailer has updated to the new limit, customers should either ask in-store or follow the prompts on the card payment machine when paying.

For consumers spending more than £100 there are many ways to pay, for example through chip and PIN, cash and alternatives such as mobile payments like Apple Pay or Google Pay that do not have an upper limit when authenticated through biometric technologies like fingerprint or facial recognition.

“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,” said David Postings, chief executive of UK Finance.

“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.”

The Chancellor Rishi Sunak said 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,” he said.