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UK shoppers will be able to ‘tap and pay’ for purchases worth up to £ 100 from Friday, but concerns over fraud have prompted a growing number of banks to allow customers to set their own credit limits. payment.
Starling Bank has launched an in-app online slider, allowing customers to adjust their contactless limit from zero to £ 100 in ten-pound increments. Lloyds Bank customers, including Halifax and Bank of Scotland, will be able to set a custom limit between £ 30 and £ 95 through online banking.
Nationwide plans to roll out a similar service in the coming weeks, but has automatically limited all children’s bank accounts to £ 45.
Banks have said they have added custom functions in response to customer requests since the decision to more than double the limit to £ 100 was announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the March budget.
The decision by HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority follows a public consultation. Sunak claimed that this “would make it easier for people to pay for their purchases than ever before.”
The contactless limit was increased from £ 30 to £ 45 at the start of the pandemic to make it easier for shoppers to pay without entering a PIN code, speeding up transactions and reducing queues in stores.
From January to July this year, 60% of all UK debit and credit card transactions were made contactless, according to banking organization UK Finance. In total, consumers used to pay 6.6 billion separate transactions with a combined value of £ 81.4 billion.
“The new £ 100 limit gives customers more choice over how they pay for things like their weekly store or a tank of fuel,” said David Postings, managing director of UK Finance.
Payment terminals require a software update to accept the change, so the £ 100 limit may not be available immediately at all retailers.
Most banks allow customers to temporarily deactivate cards through their banking apps if they get lost or misplaced, or forgo contactless technology altogether.
However, some consumers are concerned about the high value of transactions that could now be made if a card is stolen.
UK Finance said customers would be fully protected against any loss due to unauthorized card fraud.
Built-in security features will make it harder for criminals to quickly spend big bucks on stolen cards. Once a certain number of contactless expenses have been made or a certain number of transactions have been completed, customers will need to enter their PIN code to verify that they are the real cardholder.
However, customers should immediately report lost or stolen cards to their bank.
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