Contactless... limitless

TMSG

The current limit of £100 can be lifted by the banks, even to unlimited amounts, it appears.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/dec/19/uk-contactless-card-limit-of-100-to-be-scrapped-from-19-march
The article has also this nugget: "However, despite rising shop prices, a survey done for the FCA found 76% of consumers thought the limit should be £100 or lower." (A BBC article quotes 78%.) We're just sheeple, apparently.
The proposal also says that banks should offer customers a way to set a limit for the maximum. Given that Barclaycard, First Direct and others I'm banking with have so far resisted all requests to enable setting a limit, I'm not holding my breath.
This could well end like the Great SMS cleanup when we went through all our bank accounts and got rid of those (OK one exception) insisting on SMS/texts for MFA.

born_again

While I agree that you should be able to set a limit. Banks should be able to say over the recommended £100 that customer bears the excess loss should card be lost or stolen & used.

MyRealNameToo

born_again said:

While I agree that you should be able to set a limit. Banks should be able to say over the recommended £100 that customer bears the excess loss should card be lost or stolen & used.

Banks are free to set their own limits, if they dont want the liability dont give people the option to do it

[Deleted User]

I suspect a limit will be added, before it was not required. It would be madness to have no limit setting. I will destroy the card's contactless ability due to the risk if that is the case when it happens.

EarthBoy

TMSG said:

The proposal also says that banks should offer customers a way to set a limit for the maximum. Given that Barclaycard, First Direct and others I'm banking with have so far resisted all requests to enable setting a limit, I'm not holding my breath.

Lloyds and Halifax let me set a contactless limit. 

Peter999_2

EarthBoy said:

TMSG said:

The proposal also says that banks should offer customers a way to set a limit for the maximum. Given that Barclaycard, First Direct and others I'm banking with have so far resisted all requests to enable setting a limit, I'm not holding my breath.

Lloyds and Halifax let me set a contactless limit. 

I can imagine that all the main banks will offer it before they allow over £100.

Whenever I go abroad I always freeze my cards.  Every single time I forget to un-freeze them before making a purchase so I have to do it again.  No doubt I will do the same if I reduce my contactless limit.

It should make people who moan a bucketful about having to have contactless cards.

sarahTT

Peter999_2 said:

Whenever I go abroad I always freeze my cards.

So do we... if we can that is. Amex has this to say about freezing its cards:

When you freeze or unfreeze your Card, the change takes effect immediately. Your card will stay frozen for seven days if you don’t unfreeze it first. After that, we will automatically unfreeze Card for you.

After talking to them hubby (who can be a little paranoid) has decreed that these cards are never going to be used directly for anything online and I have to admit he has a point. Of course Amex takes blah blah very seriously. Like all the others.

As to removing the contactless limits I'm fine with that... If people want to enable taking £££k from their cards without PIN... OK. But there must be an easy way to set a limit.

KxMx

With Starling you can already set a limit 👍🏻

I'm concerned about HSBC, only ONCE in YEARS on my last debit card was contactless refused and a pin asked for. I was so shocked I nearly dropped the card!

My new card which is months old has asked ZERO times for a pin after being activated. 

I really hope they allow customers to set a limit 😕

Pulse credit card fares much better & asks for pin regularly.

TMSG

I know there are banks which already allow setting a limit... unfortunately we've been very successful at selecting banks/providers who don't   

Well... we'll have to wait and see what they offer, if anything, and switch if we're not happy.

I also have to agree with @KxMx . My wife pays with her FD credit card for much of our shopping and she's almost never (perhaps once every 8 months) asked to reconfirm with her PIN. So that's dozens of transactions with probably £1k in value. OK it's always the same handful of shops but still...

Belenus

TMSG said:

I know there are banks which already allow setting a limit... unfortunately we've been very successful at selecting banks/providers who don't   

Well... we'll have to wait and see what they offer, if anything, and switch if we're not happy.

I also have to agree with @KxMx . My wife pays with her FD credit card for much of our shopping and she's almost never (perhaps once every 8 months) asked to reconfirm with her PIN. So that's dozens of transactions with probably £1k in value. OK it's always the same handful of shops but still...

The bank sees each monthly statement being paid and not queried and they see regular repeat transactions from the same shops so there is little or nothing to concern the bank.

retiredbanker1

There was a poll in Money section of the Daily Mail today - 84% of CUSTOMERS do NOT want unlimited contactless limit.
I am with the 84% on this - what a barmy idea and as far as I can see will only benefit crooks.

I know that the customer is not liable for fraudulent transactions - just imagine someone picking up a card somewhere and trying their luck!