New £100 Payment Limit Shows Contactless Payments Here To Stay

If you have a contactless card machine in your business you’ll soon have the option to accept contactless payments of up to £100 after the limit was raised in the Budget. The increase (which takes effect later …

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If you have a contactless card machine in your business you’ll soon have the option to accept contactless payments of up to £100 after the limit was raised in the Budget.

The increase (which takes effect later in the year) has come in response to the Coronavirus pandemic and following increasing signs that customers were ready to start using contactless for making bigger purchases.

The government, retail sector and the payments industry have been involved in a consultation on this issue for a while now, and we’re happy to see consumer demand for easier contactless payments being listened to.

Consumers are still being advised to pay for items using contactless payment systems when they can to help suppress the spread of the virus as the vaccine programme continues to roll out.

But we believe this change has been a long time coming as all the research shows consumers are now more comfortable with using contactless payments.

And not just from contactless cards.

Increasingly we’re hearing from our customers that more people are using mobile eWallets like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay.

It’s the second time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that the limit on contactless payments has been increased.

Last year it rose from £30 to £45.

The latest announcement means that the limit on contactless payment limits has increased by £80 in the last 5 years.

The rise has also been welcomed by others in the payments, finance and retail sectors.

UK Finance in particular welcomed the news saying it “is a great move for customers and will allow them to use contactless to pay for higher value transactions like their weekly shop or filling up their car with fuel”.

The rise to £100 (which is roughly the cost of an average weekly shop in the UK) also shows that the use of contactless payments are here to stay, and businesses can’t rely on moving back to cash when things get back to normal.

Customers who had never used contactless payments before 2020 have now have more than 12 months to get accustomed to tapping a card to pay for something.

Any concerns or reservations they had have gone in the last year as they’ve seen how simple it is to make payments with contactless, as well as removing concerns about security and privacy.

Given that younger customers are also becoming more used to paying for items online, or using their smart devices when they do shop in store, there really is no going back to cash when COVID-19 is over.

If your business doesn’t yet accept contactless payments, now is a great time to get started.