Contactless Payment Limit Increasing to £100

Banking groups have confirmed today that the contactless ‘tap and go’ payment limit is to increased from £45 to £100 from 15 October 2021.

The original limit started at £30, was then increased at the start of the pandemic to £45 and has proved so popular that limits will be increased again.

UK Finance (the banking sector’s lobby group) suggests that debit card use is 5 times more frequent than credit cards and 2.5 times more than cash.

Contactless is clearly very simple, one painless tap and away you go.  This is evidence by the fact that there were nearly 16bn card transactions in the last 10 years before the pandemic compared to 6bn cash transactions.

Cash is no longer king but there will be many people, including the writer, who still like cash.

We like cash because ‘big daddy’ bankers cannot tell where you are spending money and subsequently use algorithms to target you for goods and services.  This is privacy although we know that some card groups are even looking to remove the metallic strip in cards.

Fraud

Card fraud is already a global pandemic and no doubt banking groups have compared fraud activity and relative success or failure of different types, hence moving more to contactless.  That said, given the increased contactless limit, this will no doubt appeal even more to fraudsters, to secure even greater fraudulent transactions.  Be on your guard, by just carrying a card in your pockets or handbag, details can be stolen by a fraudster with an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) scanner. 

RFID is used in many areas of life e.g. road and bridge tolls, pet ‘microchips’, goods transport, shop garment tags, alcohol security tags and more recently, contactless payment cards.  There are now special wallets and purses that have RFID blocking security using special leathers and other materials to protect your card details when in your pocket so they cannot be hacked.