£100 spending limit for contactless cards goes live

The national rollout of the new £100 spending limit for contactless card payments begins from 15 October 2021, although it will take time for retailers to update their terminals

The decision to raise the contactless limit from £45 to £100 was made by the 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 increase in the limit from £30 to £45 in April 2020 at the height of the covid pandemic.

From 15 October 2021, consumers will start to see retailers accepting contactless payments up to the new £100 limit, which will give customers more flexibility when shopping in store, UK Finance said.

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.

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.’

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. Millions of payments will made be simpler, providing a welcome boost for retailers and shoppers.’