Contactless card limit increases to £30
01/09/2015
The contactless card limit was increased to £30 over the weekend, meaning shoppers will now be able to spend up to £30 on their card without using their pin number.
The contactless limit has been increased from £20 after the UK saw a rise in the number of people paying for purchases with contactless. Transactions for the first half of this year totalled £2.5billion, compared to £2.32 billion spent throughout the whole of 2014.The average UK supermarket spend, which totals £25, will now be covered by contactless.
Consumer watchdog Which? recently warned consumers that data from contactless cards could easily be stolen. However, the UK Cards Association has claimed that fraud via the cards was "extremely low" and stood at less than one penny for every £100 spent.
The popularity of contactless payments is continuing to increase, and technology company Apple now allows users of it’s latest iPhones to make contactless payments, without even a credit or debit card present.
Kevin Jenkins, managing director of UK and Ireland at Visa Europe, has claimed that contactless payments are the “new normal”. He said:
"We've seen unprecedented growth in this area, with the number of Visa contactless transactions more than trebling in the past year in the UK.”
Graham Peacop, chief executive of the UK cards association, said:
"The growth in contactless payments shows people want to use contactless cards, and increasing the limit gives customers even more opportunities to pay in this way."
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