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What are your thoughts on the contactless card limit increasing to £100?

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py_megapixel

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Shoppers in the UK will be able to spend up to £100 using contactless card payments from 15 October as the limit on spending is more than doubled.

What on earth is the point in this, other than making it easier for people to spend more and more money without giving it proper thought? I have never been in a situation where I need to spend more than £30 so urgently that I can't spare the 10-20 seconds it takes for chip and PIN to work.

At this point, it's just progress for the sake of progress and at the expense of security.
 
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Bertie the bus

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I don’t understand why this bothers you. I decided some years back the risks of contactless outweigh the benefits to me and I instructed my bank to disable contactless on my cards. If others want to spend £100, £1,000 or £10,000 by waving a card about that is up to them.
 

eMeS

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I'm in two minds about the raise.
a) Petrol has increased in price over the last few months, and a near-full filling of my car's tank is now above the £45 limit, so the rise to £100 will be a little more convenient.
b) As a retired electronics/radar engineer, I'm surprised that criminal minds haven't started swiping money from our wallets, and the raised limit will surely make it more worthwhile to get past whatever security systems the banks have used (or not...).

The raise must hasten the demise of coin based cash.
 

Starmill

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Google Pay already allows uncapped contactless payments with most cards, although it depends on the merchant's bank if this works. I've paid more than £45 contactless before.
 

hst43102

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This isn't good for security. I never use contactless for anything over £10 anyway, so I don't see why this is necessary, unless everywhere starts refusing cash again!
 

gg1

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Not keen tbh.

Contactless is fine for low value transactions which in the past you would have paid cash for but for higher value purchases I'd rather have the added security of chip and PIN.

What I would really like to see is the option to set your own limit, which in my case I'd set at £20 with anything higher requiring a PIN.
 

londonteacher

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It's down to personal choice. I always use contactless (well Google Pay) and welcome the increased limit.

But, I can understand why others don't.

If you don't want to for whatever reason then don't and as @Bertie the bus says you can request to not have the feature.
 

James H

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Disabling contactless may be counterproductive - more and more services including vending machines and public toilets are becoming contactless-only
 

Busaholic

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I don’t understand why this bothers you. I decided some years back the risks of contactless outweigh the benefits to me and I instructed my bank to disable contactless on my cards. If others want to spend £100, £1,000 or £10,000 by waving a card about that is up to them.
I insist on a 'traditional' debit card from my bank, so there is nothing to disable, but I suspect this form of card will be unavailable by my renewal time late next year. As I have no credit card, there's nothing in my wallet able to pass into scammers' hands.
 

Butts

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I insist on a 'traditional' debit card from my bank, so there is nothing to disable, but I suspect this form of card will be unavailable by my renewal time late next year. As I have no credit card, there's nothing in my wallet able to pass into scammers' hands.

As a fellow fogey I used to be dead against them - until I actually got one !!

Still use cash as well, but mainly in small shops that have a minimum spend of £2 on contactless.

Personally I think £50 would be a sensible ceiling.
 

GB

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Given limits have been increased 3 times since introduction, is there any statistics to back up the claim and individual is more susceptible to scamming?

Personally I’m not concerned about scamming (I’ve had my card scammed with chip and pin anyway) but losing my card does worry me a bit.
 

py_megapixel

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It's down to personal choice. I always use contactless (well Google Pay) and welcome the increased limit.

But, I can understand why others don't.

If you don't want to for whatever reason then don't and as @Bertie the bus says you can request to not have the feature.
The problem is I like the feature for small transactions, but don't like the idea that if my card was stolen someone could take £100 from it in one go. Yes I know I can freeze transactions on my card while it is lost, but my card is mostly used in city centres, and were I to drop it, it could take just a few minutes for someone to go into any of dozens of nearby shops and purchase a relatively high-value item with no cardholder verification whatsoever. In that time would I have even noticed it was lost? Possibly not.

The ability to set one's own limit would be good, but it is not in the banks' interests to do that.
 

londonteacher

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The problem is I like the feature for small transactions, but don't like the idea that if my card was stolen someone could take £100 from it in one go. Yes I know I can freeze transactions on my card while it is lost, but my card is mostly used in city centres, and were I to drop it, it could take just a few minutes for someone to go into any of dozens of nearby shops and purchase a relatively high-value item with no cardholder verification whatsoever. In that time would I have even noticed it was lost? Possibly not.

The ability to set one's own limit would be good, but it is not in the banks' interests to do that.
I can set my own limit with Monzo but not with Barclays. Maybe it's worth looking around for a different bank?
 

Snow1964

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Personally I think it is a bad idea.

I am worried about the vulnerable, who will be able to spend money they haven’t got too easily. Will lead to more debt problems.

Having to enter a pin, or physically extracting banknotes from your wallet makes you think for a second if you can afford to spend money.
 

John Hunt

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What on earth is the point in this, other than making it easier for people to spend more and more money without giving it proper thought? I have never been in a situation where I need to spend more than £30 so urgently that I can't spare the 10-20 seconds it takes for chip and PIN to work.

At this point, it's just progress for the sake of progress and at the expense of security.
Agree totally - last time my debit card was renewed, it was 'promoted' (I did not request it) to contactless. I had to contact my bank to requesting that they replaced it with chip and PIN. (they seemed reluctant to do this - I had to insist on it!)
 

SteveM70

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I’ve got no issue with it. If others have, they don’t have to use it.

I only contactless on my credit card, and I have the comfort of a text alert every time the card is used (often I get the text before the shop person has confirmed the transaction has gone through), so if I was scammed I’d know immediately and would be able to get the card stopped
 

londonteacher

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It would be interesting to have a survey to see if this being an issue is a generational thing. I suspect it is.
 

PauloDavesi

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Many people use the Apple Pay, or google pay apps that doesn’t have an upper limit, apart from funds being available. Very useful for buying fuel, paying restaurant bills and large supermarket shops etc.
I’d thank the majority of people use cash infrequently and very rarely as their first choice when making payments.
 

Dai Corner

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It would be interesting to have a survey to see if this being an issue is a generational thing. I suspect it is.
FWIW I'm 61 and use Google Pay; in effect a copy of my debit card on my mobile phone. The £45 limit doesn't apply if the phone is unlocked. *

I'm quite relaxed about the limit being raised to £100. Unlike a card, I'm sure I'd notice almost immediately if my phone was lost or stolen so I could alert the bank before (m)any transactions were made. Waiting for any fraudulent transactions to be reversed wouldn't cause me any difficulties.


* I'm fairly sure I have to unlock my phone before any transaction, even though that's not in the spec.
 

Jimini

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Many people use the Apple Pay, or google pay apps that doesn’t have an upper limit, apart from funds being available. Very useful for buying fuel, paying restaurant bills and large supermarket shops etc.
I’d thank the majority of people use cash infrequently and very rarely as their first choice when making payments.

Yep. My bank card stopped working last year (chip is broken), and I’ve just used Apple Pay for everything since. Think the limit is £10k (same as chip and PIN), but I’ve bought all sorts of stuff on it like washing machines, new 4K telly (was about £750 if I recall correctly), all with a double click and a quick smile at my phone camera.
 

Jamiescott1

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Since the increase to £45, I've noticed that when I pay contactless the number of times it has been declined and I've had to enter my pin has increased
 

simonw

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I see nothing wrong with raising the limit, in fact I welcome it. Ones view I think is coloured by a number of factors. Some parts of the country still seem to be wedded to cash.
 

simonw

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What is wrong with that? New methodology of all types seems to be foisted on the public at large these days.
cash is a pita, imho. In large areas of the SE it seems to the exception rather than the norm. travelling elsewhere and ending with a pocket full of shaprenel is IMHO a pita as is having to find cash when a taxi driver declares he only takes cash . Other opinions may be offered.
 

Ashley Hill

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The initial limit of £30 I thought was quite sensible coupled with about 5 contactless transactions before PIN required. The raise to £45 during lockdown eased transmission through cash handling,however I'm not convinced raising it to £100 is a good idea. I'd return it back to £30. It's like the public are being encouraged into the cashless society.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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cash is a pita, imho. In large areas of the SE it seems to the exception rather than the norm. travelling elsewhere and ending with a pocket full of shaprenel is IMHO a pita as is having to find cash when a taxi driver declares he only takes cash . Other opinions may be offered.
What is all that talk of "shrapnel" about? You mention the SE in your posting above, perhaps it might be something peculiar to that region.

Where I live in Cheshire East, the weight of the £20 new plastic notes in my wallet is insignificant. Don't currency notes exist in the SE?.
 

simonw

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What is all that talk of "shrapnel" about. You mention the SE in your posting above, perhaps it might be something peculiar to that region.

Where I live in Cheshire East, the weight of the £20 new plastic notes in my wallet is insignificant. Don't currency notes exist in the SE?.
Shrapnel, well known slang for coins.
 
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