UK Contactless Spending Limit to Increase From £30 to £45 Beginning Next Month

[bigchrisfgb]

It should not have been raised at all, even £45 is too much given that anyone that finds/steals your card can buy unlimited number of goods without needing a signature or PIN.

A few months ago you could do a lot more contactless transitions without being asked to enter your pin. The number you can do now is a lot less.
So in reality you can’t lose as much money as you could have a few months ago by someone taking your card and just swiping it across a card reader.
Not only that but in recent months banks have been given stricter rules on what they have to protect due to fraud.

So right now even with the new £45 cap, you are likely to lose a lot less due to fraud and to recover more of your money than you were a few months ago with the rules back then and a £30 cap.
In addition to this, and most importantly. It has become obvious how dirty and now potentially dangerous it is to handle cash. We really need to encourage people to use card payments as much as possible, and to do that we need to make it easier for people to use card payments.
This £45 spend cap is a very welcome addition.

 

[alexandr]

what? this is crazy – i didn't even know such a thing existed. would be hard to take advantage of apple card's cashback with such limits...

 

[jaytv111]

This is something controlled by the credit card companies and the stores.

I’ve heard it explained before like this (I don’t have any proof this is true, but it makes a lot of sense): every transaction gets a score representing how likely it is to be authentic, based on a large number of factors, including, say, how closely the address provided with the transaction matches the one on file (this specific example would more likely be for an online transaction), down to things like, say, the address they’re supplying with the transaction has your 5-digit zip code, but the address the credit card company has on file has your 9-digit zip code - both are correct but they don’t match exactly (another example would be one side having your middle initial, while the other has only first and last name) - each such discrepancy lowers the score a bit. And the lower the score, the higher the fee the credit card company charges for processing it (at some point, obviously, they simply refuse the transaction). One thing that raises the score is getting a signature. So, various stores establish policies requiring signatures and such at various transaction amounts, based on how much they’re willing to pay to process the transaction (knowing that lowering the requirements on customers makes them a tiny bit more likely to buy stuff, statistically - it’s a balancing act). Of course, the specific card companies can also have mandatory requirements for the transaction at various levels.

Signatures aren't required any more by the card issuers: https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/13/pf/credit-card-signature/index.html

Retailers usually have signatures still just from legacy software that hasn't been updated.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

Why is this even a thing?

I couldn't even fill my tank with that limit, let alone buy something "big" like an Apple Battery Case.

 

[aperantos]

what? this is crazy – i didn't even know such a thing existed. would be hard to take advantage of apple card's cashback with such limits...

The limit does not apply if you use Apple Pay, such as when using Apple Card in your Apple Wallet.

Nor does it apply if you use a credit or debit card and enter a PIN, such as with Apple Card as a credit card.

The limit only applies to contactless payments made without any security checks, either with a credit or debit card or where Apply Pay is not supported. And Apple Card is not contactless, Apple expect you to use it in Apple Wallet on one of their devices to make contactless payments.

So the limit would only apply when using Apple Card via your device in a place where Apple Pay is not accepted. There are very few places where you would hit this limit with Apple Card, that is apart from Apple Card not being available in the U.K.

Why is this even a thing?

To see who does not read the thread before posting.

 

[tmiw]

Signatures aren't required any more by the card issuers: https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/13/pf/credit-card-signature/index.html

Retailers usually have signatures still just from legacy software that hasn't been updated.

Actually, I'm pretty sure a fair number think that getting rid of the prompt wouldn't be beneficial to them (e.g. restaurants/tipping, merchants burned by chargebacks in the past, etc.) It's going to be a while before it fully goes away, if it ever does.

 

[alexandr]

The limit does not apply if you use Apple Pay, such as when using Apple Card in your Apple Wallet.

So the limit would only apply when using Apple Card via your device in a place where Apple Pay is not accepted. There are very few places where you would hit this limit with Apple Card, that is apart from Apple Card not being available in the U.K.

got it, thanks! despite not being available in the u.k. the apple card can still be used there of course)

 

[jimthing]

A few months ago you could do a lot more contactless transitions without being asked to enter your pin. The number you can do now is a lot less.
So in reality you can’t lose as much money as you could have a few months ago by someone taking your card and just swiping it across a card reader.
Not only that but in recent months banks have been given stricter rules on what they have to protect due to fraud.

So right now even with the new £45 cap, you are likely to lose a lot less due to fraud and to recover more of your money than you were a few months ago with the rules back then and a £30 cap.
In addition to this, and most importantly. It has become obvious how dirty and now potentially dangerous it is to handle cash. We really need to encourage people to use card payments as much as possible, and to do that we need to make it easier for people to use card payments.
This £45 spend cap is a very welcome addition.

To get more cashless usage, you need to educate people on how to budget with digital payments. Many people are clueless or find it very difficult on how to deal with their budgeting across non-cash means of payment.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

To see who does not read the thread before posting.

I read the post. I still couldn't fill my gas tank or do a weekly grocery run with a limit that low.

 

[Nova_LAR]

Likewise, this increase is from 25 to 50 € in Greece, as of today I think.

Let me correct this, the increase will be applied on Monday the 30th of March.

 

[kyussmondo]

I don't get this limit I did a bit over $13,000 on Apple Pay contactless back in spring 2019 without an issue. Seems like odd limits. No signature, PIN or anything else.

Contactless is much more secure than the alternatives whether Apple Pay or not, so it seems just archaic for some countries (or issuers?) to have limits like that.

How is contactless a card (not Apple Pay or Google Pay) more secure? With Apple Pay you have to authenticate using Face ID or Touch ID or the Apple Watch cannot have left the wrist or it locks itself. With a card, you can just tap away with no authentication, hence the need for a limit or a PIN or signature over a certain limit. I personally dislike having a contactless card as anyone with my card could just start tapping away, the £45 limit just limits some of the damage someone can do, but it is still £45 a pop, whereas with Apple Pay, without my passcode or face then they can't spend anything.

One thing the UK doesn't do, which some countries do is if you use a contactless card (maybe Apple Pay too) that is over a certain amount then they will ask you to enter a PIN or sign.

Yes, there are a growing number of places that support Apple Pay with no limit, although there are still quite a few places that still impose the £45 contactless limit whether Apple Pay or not because they haven't updated their terminals or they may have their own payment system they are trying to push (Tesco). Also, there are some banks that impose a limit on Apple Pay, I believe Lloyds imposes a £250 maximum limit on an Apple Pay transaction and I believe the limit on Starling Bank is £500. Tesco applies a £250 limit on Apple Pay, whereas Waitrose has a £10,000 limit.