A change to banking regulations will see the £100 maximum payment limit for contactless card payments removed, with the changes going live in March 2026.
Around 95% of all eligible card payments are made contactlessly at present, and while Google and Apple Pay have no limit for smartphone-based transactions, conventional credit and debit cards need to be inserted into payment terminals and require a PIN to be entered for purchases over £100.
From March, the Financial Conduct Authority has ruled that banks and payment providers “with strong fraud controls” will be able to set their own limits for contactless payments, with the regulator saying the change will allow firms to “better respond to changing consumer demands, inflation and new technology”.
Banks will be encouraged to allow customers to set their own contactless limits or, conversely, deactivate the functionality entirely, while their ’ obligations to reimburse fraudulent consumers for transactions will remain unchanged.
Contactless payments went live in the UK in 2007 with a £10 limit, which was raised to £15 three years later, and increased incrementally until 2021 when it reached the outgoing £100 cap.
David Geale, the FCA’s executive director of payments and digital, commented:
’Contactless is people’s favoured way to pay. We want to make sure our rules provide flexibility for the future, and choice for both firms and consumers.
