Bank Cards

(asked on 21st May 2021) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the level of consumer and retail industry support for an increase of the operational contactless card limit to £100 on 15 October 2021.


Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 27th May 2021

The legal contactless payment limits are set by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) through regulator rules, specifically the Strong Customer Authentication technical standards. Following a public consultation and with Treasury approval, as required by the Payment Services Regulations, the FCA increased the legal single contactless payment limit to £100 on 3 March 2021.


Any changes to operational contactless limits up to the new legal limits are at the discretion of payment service providers; the Government understands that industry is preparing to implement new higher operational contactless limits before the end of the year and welcomes payment service providers and retailers working together to that end.


Other jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada and the US, have all recently increased their contactless limits to over £100 in their equivalent currencies and I understand the changes in those countries have been positive as consumers and businesses realise the benefits from these new limits.


Ministers routinely meet with and receive representations from a range of private sector stakeholders. Transparency releases are published on a quarterly basis and are publicly available on GOV.UK.

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