Contactless limit goes up to £45

From today, Wednesday, the spending limit for contactless card payments has increased from £30 to £45 across the country,

The change means retailers in the UK can now update their payment systems to accept contactless card transactions up to the new higher limit of £45.

This increase follows swift action by the payments industry to increase the contactless limit as part of the financial services industry’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The decision to raise the limit was taken following consultation between the retail sector and the finance and payments industry and follows similar increases in several other European countries over the past few weeks.

The process, however, has been expedited as part of the industry’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak to support consumers who choose to pay using contactless at this time.

These are, of course, challenging times; and not all retailers will be able to make the required changes to their payment systems straight away. The payments industry, including all contactless card issuers, has completed all the work to enable retailers to upgrade as soon as they can.

If a retailer wants to start accepting contactless payments at the higher limit of £45 it should get in touch with its acquirer.

For consumers spending more than £45 there are many ways to choose to pay, for example through Chip & PIN and other alternatives such as mobile payments which do not have an upper limit when authenticated through biometric technologies.