Banks and payment providers will soon be able to amend limits
From 19 March the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is allowing banks and payment providers with strong fraud controls to amend limits for contactless payments on cards.
Most consumers will however not see immediate changes, but the update gives firms flexibility to adjust limits in future.
UK Finance have provided the following information on the change :
What is happening?
Contactless debit and credit cards are currently subject to two limits:
- A single transaction limit of £100
- A cumulative limit that requires you to enter your PIN after a certain number of transactions or a certain amount of spend (no more than £300).
In December 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that banks and payment providers with strong fraud controls would be given flexibility over contactless payment limits.
As the FCA noted, most banks are likely to maintain their existing contactless limits for the time being. Any changes will be communicated to customers.
Separate changes would also need to be made to card acceptance terminals and the industry rules that govern them to process contactless card payments above £100.
This means that customers are unlikely to see any immediate change to how they currently make contactless card payments.
Mobile payments are not affected
This does not impact mobile payments (e.g. Apple/Google Pay) which will continue to operate without a fixed £100 limit.
Higher payments though mobile wallets are possible because the phone verifies your identity in a similar way to a PIN is unique to you – for example via Face ID or a thumbprint. The verification is required for all mobile payments regardless of value.
Data on contactless payments usage in the UK
As of December 2025, our data showed that:
- Contactless is the UK consumer’s most popular way to pay, accounting for 67 per cent of all credit card and 76 per cent of all debit card transactions.
- The average value of a contactless payment is currently just under £18.
- There are 98.7 million contactless debit cards in issue (out of 108.8 million in total) and 58.8 million contactless credit cards (out of 60.4 million in total).
- 19.2 billion contactless debit and credit card payments were made in 2025 in the UK, with a total value of £311 billion.
Protection against fraud
Existing consumer protections remain in place.
All customers are protected from unauthorised fraud, including where their card has been stolen and used via contactless.
The fraud rate on contactless cards is very low.
Customers should get in contact with their card provider as soon as they realise their card has been lost or stolen.
