The \u00a3100 cap on contactless card payments is to be lifted, with changes allowing some shoppers to set their own limits. According to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) plans, banks and other card providers with strict fraud controls will be able to set their own rules for such transactions starting March 19.<\/p>\n
Current rules set the limit for contactless card payments at \u00a3100 per transaction. The FCA said the method had become consumers’ preferred payment method. The reforms will also allow companies to better respond to changing consumer demands, inflation, and new technologies, the regulator said. Banks will still be required to reimburse consumers in the event of fraud.<\/p>\n
The popularity of paying with a card has increased significantly in recent years. Consumer spending data showed that in 2024, 94.6% of eligible in-store card transactions were contactless. There were also 10 times more contactless transactions per month last year than in 2015. Changes to these limits were among about 50 proposals proposed by the regulator in a letter to the government after they asked for ideas to boost economic growth.<\/p>\n
David Geale, executive director of payments and digital finance at the FCA, said: "Contactless is people’s preferred payment method. We want to ensure our rules provide flexibility for the future and choice for both businesses and consumers." Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHospitality, said: \u201cMaking life easier for consumers is beneficial for every hospitality and retail business.\u201d Jana Mackintosh from industry association UK Finance also supported the reforms, saying: \u201cContactless is a very popular and secure payment method.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under current rules, banks and card providers also impose a cumulative limit of \u00a3300 on contactless transactions, with the number of tap-only payments capped at five consecutive payments. As part of the restructuring, companies will have the opportunity to also change the cumulative cap. The FCA said existing protections would remain in place, requiring banks to compensate consumers in cases of unauthorized fraud, such as if their card is lost or stolen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to Contactless Payments The \u00a3100 cap on contactless card payments is to be lifted, with changes allowing some shoppers to set their own limits. According to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) plans, banks and other card providers with strict fraud controls will be able to set their own rules for such transactions starting March 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[743,68,5823,5478,20847,93,2538,6417,595,70,18770,2412,5121],"class_list":{"0":"post-28544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-company","9":"tag-consumer","10":"tag-consumer-spending","11":"tag-contactless-payment","12":"tag-contactless-smart-card","13":"tag-economic-growth","14":"tag-finance","15":"tag-financial-conduct-authority","16":"tag-fraud","17":"tag-inflation","18":"tag-payment","19":"tag-retail","20":"tag-security"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28546,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28544\/revisions\/28546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}