£100 contactless limit could increase

Entertainment Forum Helper, Careers Forum Helper

19

The £100 contactless limit could increase from £100.
No decision has been made yet, and if it does, it hasnt been decided how much it will go up to.
What are your thoughts?

£100 contactless limit for shoppers could be scrapped under new plans - Mirror Online

Reply 1

Euapp

21

Original post

by Emma:-)

The £100 contactless limit could increase from £100.
No decision has been made yet, and if it does, it hasnt been decided how much it will go up to.
What are your thoughts?
£100 contactless limit for shoppers could be scrapped under new plans - Mirror Online

Everywhere else in Europe has a 50€ limit because of the risk associated with card theft so why am I not surprised that the UK seems to think there is no risk worth taking into account? Even without contactless payments my DC has had their card cloned twice since they’ve been in the UK studying. The security systems in place seem to be sadly lacking.

Reply 2

StriderHort

21

Nah I'm not keen. I was under the impression we only bumped it up to £100 in the first place due to covid and a desire to avoid contact. For all that we like tapping quickly for a train ticket or some groceries, for a 3 figure sum of money you should want a pin authentication.

Reply 3

Emma:-)

OP

Entertainment Forum Helper, Careers Forum Helper

19

Original post

by StriderHort

Nah I'm not keen. I was under the impression we only bumped it up to £100 in the first place due to covid and a desire to avoid contact. For all that we like tapping quickly for a train ticket or some groceries, for a 3 figure sum of money you should want a pin authentication.

I'm not keen either. There should be a reasonable limit (e.g. the £100 limit that's in place now).
Obviously there's all the risks with card theft etc to take into account. Surely increasing it will lead to more issues.

Reply 4

mesub

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

22

I would have it capped at £100. If it goes over, there should be extra protections put in place. Whilst it is quick and convenient, you do need to balance this with security. Will there be a rise of fraud cases?

Reply 5

martin7

20

Original post

by mesub

I would have it capped at £100. If it goes over, there should be extra protections put in place. Whilst it is quick and convenient, you do need to balance this with security. Will there be a rise of fraud cases?

I imagine the banks will take fraud issues into account when they give their input. It's ultimately a balance between convenience and risk -- there's a point at which the financial risks to the banks will outweight perceived benefits and the banks will push back.

While I can pay for my weekly shopping trip (almost always less than £100) using contactless, I choose to use chip-and-pin; for no other reason than that it means I can do the rest of my transactions that week (buying lunch, getting coffee) knowing it's unlikely I'll get asked for a PIN.

But I've never been a situation where the fact that I need to use a PIN for higher-value purchase has put me off paying, and that for some reason appears to be the argument as to why the limit should be raised from £100.

Reply 6

Euapp

21

Just did a little check and found that fraud with contactless payment is apparently on the increase (7% per year) but has very little to do with the physical theft of the card but more to do with the technology behind the system. The radio frequency identification between the card and the terminal is pirated so an account can be drained with the card remaining in your wallet. Whether you spend £1 or £100 makes no difference. it is MUCH safer to continue inserting your card and using your PIN.

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 7

-Eirlys-

Debate & Current Affairs Helper, Life & Style Forum Helper

21

Original post

by Emma:-)

The £100 contactless limit could increase from £100.
No decision has been made yet, and if it does, it hasnt been decided how much it will go up to.
What are your thoughts?

£100 contactless limit for shoppers could be scrapped under new plans - Mirror Online

I think £100 covers most things, I don't think the cap should be raised or removed.

Reply 8

Emma:-)

OP

Entertainment Forum Helper, Careers Forum Helper

19

Original post

by -Eirlys-

I think £100 covers most things, I don't think the cap should be raised or removed.

Exactly. I agree

Reply 9

Saracen's Fez

Volunteer Section Leader, Clearing and Applications Advisor

20

How many three-figure purchases are people regularly making in person with their card these days anyway?!

Feel like the people using a higher limit would be overwhelmingly criminals.

Reply 10

Euapp

21

Original post

by Saracen's Fez

How many three-figure purchases are people regularly making in person with their card these days anyway?!
Feel like the people using a higher limit would be overwhelmingly criminals.

How about filling the petrol tank of your car, doing a weekly supermarket shop for a family? Paying the vaccinations of your dog/ cat. I’ve done all of those this week . Does that make me a criminal?

Reply 11

TheStupidMoon

14

£100 notes should be used more frequently instead. People were paying for items with £50 notes in the 1980s.

Reply 12

StriderHort

21

Original post

by Saracen's Fez

How many three-figure purchases are people regularly making in person with their card these days anyway?!
Feel like the people using a higher limit would be overwhelmingly criminals.

That's a very strange assumption to have made, can you explain further?

Plenty of common legitimate things cost over £100, a large shop, tech, car hire/repairs... can you tell me the ones that are criminal?

Reply 13

Euapp

21

Original post

by TheStupidMoon

£100 notes should be used more frequently instead. People were paying for items with £50 notes in the 1980s.

Shops don’t want them due to the risk of accepting counterfeit notes. Hence there are no longer 500€ notes being issued in Europe.

Reply 14

StriderHort

21

Original post

by TheStupidMoon

£100 notes should be used more frequently instead. People were paying for items with £50 notes in the 1980s.

Almost nowhere takes them sadly, the staff just don't want the risk.

Reply 15

Saracen's Fez

Volunteer Section Leader, Clearing and Applications Advisor

20

Original post

by StriderHort

That's a very strange assumption to have made, can you explain further?

Plenty of common legitimate things cost over £100, a large shop, tech, car hire/repairs... can you tell me the ones that are criminal?

Probably more that I'm so used to making almost all of those sorts of purchase online – card security there being a whole separate question!

Reply 16

Talkative Toad

Volunteer Team

22

Nah not a fan.

I’d personally prefer it if you made it so that businesses (shops and the hospitality industry) operating UK were required to accept cash.

Even though I hardly ever use cash, it’s disappointing to see universities like mine having banned cash payments since December 2022. What if you’re a kid visiting the university and you want to by something extra and have no card? (Yes I have kids visiting my university).

Sometimes I’ve had my card declined (the company’s card machine is playing up rather than my card being the issue) but had the correct amount of money in cash but companies like Ryanair will be stingy and try to gaslight you into thinking that it’s your fault and they won’t accept the cash payment.

Please focus on making it so that businesses and other institutions (where reasonably possible) e.g Ryanair when you’re trying to buy stuff on the plane and my university on campus are required to accept both cash and card payments.

Sometimes the machine breaks down, sometimes it’s kids who most likely don’t have a card who want to by stuff, sometimes you can be like me and not have a contactless card (was the case for me for years) and some places only accept contactless payment etc.

So have a contingency plan in place by allowing cash payments. That would be more useful than endlessly increasing the contactless limit.

Reply 17

Stormgrad

11

Original post

by Emma:-)

The £100 contactless limit could increase from £100.
No decision has been made yet, and if it does, it hasnt been decided how much it will go up to.
What are your thoughts?
£100 contactless limit for shoppers could be scrapped under new plans - Mirror Online

I think £100 is where im happy for the contacless limit to be at. Between card cloning and theft I feel £100 is a fair middle ground before opening us up to more risk while making it exceptionally easy and convenient

Reply 18

Stormgrad

11

Original post

by Euapp

How about filling the petrol tank of your car, doing a weekly supermarket shop for a family? Paying the vaccinations of your dog/ cat. I’ve done all of those this week . Does that make me a criminal?

With the exception of filling the tank i don't really see the added inconvenience for the other purchases of inputting your pin. These are already transactions that take a reasonable amount of time.

Reply 19

Stormgrad

11

Original post

by StriderHort

That's a very strange assumption to have made, can you explain further?
Plenty of common legitimate things cost over £100, a large shop, tech, car hire/repairs... can you tell me the ones that are criminal?

A large shop, tech purchases, and car hire/repair are all expenditures where you've already invested a fair amount of time already. The inconvenience of putting your pin in on those purchass doesn't drastically increase the sale time. It's not the same as nipping to the corner shop and just grabbing a pint of milk

£100 contactless limit could increase

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