Contactless limit to rise

[Norphy]

Not sure if this counts as political or not, so feel free to close if deemed so

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56263582

 

The Treasury has confirmed that the contactless payment limit is being raised to £100. Am I the only one who thinks that's way too high? £30 was about right, imo. It's understandable it got raised to £45 for the pandemic but the idea of having my card lifted from my wallet and suddenly being made £100 lighter without any further verification is not one I particularly like.

[network41]

I agree , £100 is way to high as @Norphy says if your card is lost £100 quickly spent is a worry

[BOOT]

I don't see why we can't all set our own limit.

[ITGuyNW]

I use Google Pay. You need to unlock your phone to spend over £45 which I think is a good compromise.

[JJonas]

Going to ring my bank tonight and ask them to send me a card without contactless

 

-edit- I do get that it is backed by the bank so you can get your money back if it is stolen.

However if enough people ring their bank and ask to non-contactless cards then it is possible they might have to rethink the policy

Edited March 3, 2021 by JJonas

[seustice]

Banks promise to underwrite contactless payments if the card is stolen - fine with me, potentially can use Pay at Pump without touching the pin pad.

[Danp]

I'm happy with it. It's backed so if something when wayward you will get it back, although a small fight might be needed. My bank Monzo tells me instantly every payment and I can block my card from the app if I need to.

[Jcx500]

I rarely carry my card these days anyway due to apple pay , and i don't think it has a limit ?

[LeMarchand]

I'm quite happy with it too. Find it a PITA having use a card these days.

[hardtailstar]

I use Google Pay. You need to unlock your phone to spend over £45 which I think is a good compromise.

 

I use Google Pay too but some people don't have a smart phone to do that.

 

£100 is too high, If you lose your card, someone can easily spend a load in many shops!

[Jawloms]

I rarely carry my card these days anyway due to apple pay , and i don't think it has a limit ?

 

Never assume that unfortunately. I went in a B&M and tried to spend about £50 and they wouldn't take my phone as payment as they set their own limits. Stupid lot.....

[Norphy]

I rarely carry my card these days anyway due to apple pay , and i don't think it has a limit ?

 

The difference is, you need to authenticate the device for Apple Pay to work, either with the passcode or with Touch/FaceID

 

Never assume that unfortunately. I went in a B&M and tried to spend about £50 and they wouldn't take my phone as payment as they set their own limits. Stupid lot.....

 

Entirely dependant on the retailer, yes. They need to make sure their POS terminal is running the latest firmware and even then they can set arbitrary limits. Before the pandemic, even Tesco were limiting device payments to £30. I suspect that was because they were pushing their own rival payment service.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Norphy

[jthompson]

I don't see why we can't all set our own limit.

 

That's my thought, too. I have several cards in my wallet and would set different contactless limits on each if I could. Personal preference and all that.

[Ditto]

Setting your own limit makes a lot of sense - £100 maximum has advantages though. I do wonder if cards are stunted technologically. Apple Pay, Google Pay or a similar alternative would be better such that authentication is stronger.

[jthompson]

Perhaps the system isn't well-suited to having different limits for different cards. The POS systems might rely on holding a general value for 'the limit' and not really be able to accomodate checking for a limit at each transaction. It's probably also helpful for sales staff to know that the limit is going to be the same for all customers.

[MatthewL]

I agree set your own limit, default of say £30 as it was before but if you want to set it higher then your choice.

 

Imagine little old lady gets mugged, purse gets nicked, that's £100 straight away but she might not have any other money for several weeks.

 

Good thing with Android you have to have your phone unlocked to use it and to be honest I only ever turn my NFC on when I'm going to use it. Tend to use card more than phone, phone is my backup when I go out without my wallet.

[Jawloms]

Whilst I agree in principal that we should be able to set our own limits, I wouldn't like to be the till operator telling someone it's above their limit and the customer saying it isn't as they set it themselves. You'll get people forgetting what their limit is too. If it's set by everyone to be the same, at least we all know where we stand.

[elsiegee40]

I use Apple Pay for high limit spends. I would prefer card payment was restricted to a lower limit for security

[MatthewL]

Although there is the limit set by the banks it was clear that last year when it was raised many shops have it set on their systems and this had to be updated too so not sure how that works and why they have limits.

[Zoom7000]

Apple Pay tends to be unlimited everywhere. However, I noticed that Tesco don't allow Apple Pay over £45 and instead want you to sign up for their Tesco Bank fob.

 

Despite it being a little high, if your card is stolen, the banks are normally reasonable in refunding items that are fraudulent.

[jmak]

It hadn't occurred to me that the limit was set by the government - I guess it's so that they can enforce the requirement to refund fraudulent spending.

 

I've found Google Pay using MBNA credit card frustrating. They don't specify a limit, just say that they might sometimes restrict it. I got caught out trying to use it for my weekly shop at the supermarket - don't see how it can be unusual spending pattern as I use the same card at the same branch for a similar amount on the same day every week. Fortunately I'd also added my debit card as I'd forgotten my wallet. Limits its usefulness if you can't rely on it.

[stevejp]

Limits its usefulness if you can't rely on it.

 

Now, that’s where my reputation as a dinosaur/ grumpy old man comes in - I’d say it’s totally useless if you can’t rely on it!

[Sonic007]

How many of these £100 spends can you do in 24 hours as someone could go on a nice shopping spree.

[jthompson]

How many of these £100 spends can you do in 24 hours as someone could go on a nice shopping spree.

 

My record is 5. With a higher limit, it's hard to way whether that would make me end a spree sooner or not.

 

Edit: \s, naturally.

[Achandler]

The reason limits take a while to update at POS is because it is PITA to do it.

 

The firmware needs updating on the readers, where the readers connect to have to be updated as well, then we also needed to update the authorisation server as well! Was a nightmare to do. I'd love to say that I am sure big retailers have faster systems in place to do it then I was using, but given they are forever on out of date OSes etc, I would probably doubt it.