The UK will begin rolling out a new £100 (US$137) spending limit for contactless payments from 15 October 2021, UK Finance has announced.

The contactless limit in the UK currently stands at £45 (US$61.70), following an increase from £30 (US$41.13) in April 2020.

“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,” UK Finance says.

“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.

“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.”

“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,” says the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. “As people get back to the high street, millions of payments will be made simpler, providing a welcome boost for retailers and shoppers.”

“Contactless payment has proved very popular with consumers and an increasing number of transactions are being made using contactless technology,” David Postings, chief executive of UK Finance, adds.

“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.”

• Find full and up-to-date details of worldwide contactless limit increases in NFCW’s table of contactless transaction limit changes.

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