Contactless spending limit to be raised to £100 from October, Treasury confirms

The national roll-out of the new £100 spending limit for contactless card payments will begin from October 2021 15.
Contactless payments to raise to a £100 limit.Contactless payments to raise to a £100 limit.
Contactless payments to raise to a £100 limit.

The decision to raise the contactless limit from £45 to £100 was made by HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority 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 during the height of the pandemic.

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A UK Finance spokesperson said warned however that, given the number of terminals which 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," the spokesperson said.

For consumers spending more than £100 there are many ways to pay, for example through Chip & PIN, cash and alternatives such as mobile payments 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."

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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 made be simpler, providing a welcome boost for retailers and shoppers.”

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