The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has again upped the limit of contactless payments, with the cap on single transactions rising from £45 to £100.
Furthermore, the contactless threshold for multiple transaction has increased from £130 to £300.
These changes come to improve the continence for consumers and merchants, it said.
FCA executive director Sheldon Mills said, “During the pandemic more people have been using contactless payments. We are changing our rules to help the industry continue to respond to the changing ways in which people prefer to pay.
“Increasing the regulatory limits allows industry to raise the contactless limit in the future to meet the evolving expectations of customers and merchants for fast but secure ways to pay. When making any change, it is important that the industry continues to ensure the right protections are in place to keep payments safe and secure.”
Mills asked for the industry to use these changes to help consumers and merchants during the recovery of the pandemic.
Rumours were circling at the start of 2021 that the FCA might increase the limits to £100.
The regulator stated it had been lenient on firms that failed to require Chip and PIN when a customer exceeded the cumulative transaction value threshold during the pandemic. These measures will remove the need to be flexible, it said.
However, this does mean firms will need to comply with the new thresholds.
The contactless payments cap was only just increased from £30 to £45 in April 2020. It came as a way to combat the coronavirus and dissuade people from touching POS devices.
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