UK – from today the upper limit for contactless payments increases to £30

The UK Cards Association announced that from today (Tuesday, September 1 2015) the upper limit for contactless payments increases to £30. Payment terminals are being updated to accept the new limit from today and over a number of weeks to ensure national coverage.

Contactless spending has risen from £287 million per month in January 2015 to £567 million in June 2015, data from The UK Cards Association, the trade body for the cards payment industry, shows. In total, £2.5 billion was spent on contactless cards and devices in the first half of 2015, compared to £2.32 billion for the whole of 2014.

As the sole recipients of all the data from acquirers and card schemes The UK Cards Association’s data is the single authoritative source of statistics for whole of the market for the whole of the UK.The new £30 payment limit is being introduced in recognition of the popularity of contactless spending and as the number of contactless cards in circulation rises. More was spent using contactless cards between January and June of this year than in the whole of 2014. It means consumers will begin to see an increasing availability of shops where they can make contactless payments up to a limit of £30 from today.

Paying with contactless cards is safe, using the same robust industry-standard secure encryption technology as Chip and PIN. Fraud on contactless cards is extremely low, at less than one penny for every hundred pounds spent.

The average supermarket spend of £25 now falls below the contactless limit, giving shoppers more choice about the way they can pay for their goods. The average card spend in pubs, cinemas, dry cleaners, pet shops and gift shops also falls under the new £30 limit.

There are more than 69 million contactless payment cards in circulation. More than 9.3 million contactless payment cards were issued to consumers between January and June 2015.The protection customers have when making a contactless transaction is no different from any other card transaction. Victims of fraud will get their money back.

The decision to raise the limit was taken collectively after extensive consultation with all of the parties in the cards payments industry.

Software across the country’s network of payment terminals is being upgraded to accommodate the new limit from today.