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

[WelshBluebird]

To replace cash for small value transactions.

And it also works a lot better than chip and pin for things like car parks where payment is taken on exit or toll roads etc.

 

[SteveM70]

I think it is understandable that businesses do not want to accept any £50 banknotes as they are much more commonly counterfeited than others

That's not true. They're counterfeited relatively rarely nowadays (because the scammers know they're not widely accepted, maybe), but counterfeits - in shops that do accept £50 notes - are successful more often because the real notes' scarcity means the person on the till is less familiar with them.

Interestingly, there are only 6 times more £20 notes in circulation than £50 notes, yet whilst £20s are almost ubiquitous, £50s are scarce. Presumably they're all circulating in a relatively small subset of the population??

 

[Busaholic]

What was the point of introducing contactless in the first place anyway? Typing in your pin takes like three seconds? Are people in that much of a rush these days that saving three seconds is important to them? Are there any other benefits of contactless other than saving a couple seconds?

What saving anyway? So many times I see people taking many swipes before they eventually connect. And don't get me on the person, invariably just in front of me in the queue, who presents their smartphone to the reader and, five minutes later, may actually succeed in whatever it is they intended to do, presumably pay. What a rigmarole for 60p's worth of goods in the Co-Op!

 

[birchesgreen]

One of my relatives works for one of those rich foreigners in Hampstead and she gets paid in bunches of fifty pound notes. She obviously likes the money though finds it a bit annoying.

 

[Hadders]

That's not true. They're counterfeited relatively rarely nowadays (because the scammers know they're not widely accepted, maybe), but counterfeits - in shops that do accept £50 notes - are successful more often because the real notes' scarcity means the person on the till is less familiar with them.

Interestingly, there are only 6 times more £20 notes in circulation than £50 notes, yet whilst £20s are almost ubiquitous, £50s are scarce. Presumably they're all circulating in a relatively small subset of the population??

Polymer notes have changed things when it comes to forged notes. Practically no forged polymer notes have been detected and now we are in the dying months of paper £20 notes being accepted and so any fraudsters sitting on a pile of them is having to spend them sharpish. £50 paper notes have a bit longer to go but I suspect there will be a final flurry as they come close to their withdrawal date.

 

[Busaholic]

Polymer notes have changed things when it comes to forged notes. Practically no forged polymer notes have been detected and now we are in the dying months of paper £20 notes being accepted and so any fraudsters sitting on a pile of them is having to spend them sharpish. £50 paper notes have a bit longer to go but I suspect there will be a final flurry as they come close to their withdrawal date.

Off topic, but polymer notes can survive perfectly in a washing machine programmed on a hot wash, together with plastic cards. but bits of cardboard with your vaccination details on them are irrevocably lost (recent bitter personal experience.)

 

[najaB]

So many times I see people taking many swipes before they eventually connect. And don't get me on the person, invariably just in front of me in the queue, who presents their smartphone to the reader and, five minutes later, may actually succeed in whatever it is they intended to do, presumably pay.

I can only speak for myself, naturally, but I'd estimate a high 90's percent first time scan rate and I can't remember any time recently where it didn't work on the second attempt. Could your observation not be easily a case of confirmation bias - you only notice the occasions where people have difficulty, thereby reinforcing the idea that contactless never works?

 

[johntea]

I find myself hardly using my actual contactless card these days and just using my phone (Apple Pay) which I believe has no theoretical limit but a lot of retailers impose the same limit as contactless

Having an online banking app any transactions appear pretty much instantly under pending payments so I can easily keep track during the day

 

[Ediswan]

... now we are in the dying months of paper £20 notes being accepted and so any fraudsters sitting on a pile of them is having to spend them sharpish. £50 paper notes have a bit longer to go ...

Both 30 September 2022 according to the Bank of England.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/20-pound-note

 

[davews]

You had me scared for a moment, still got a couple of paper £20 in my wallet. Guess I will have spent them by next year.

 

[Typhoon]

That's not true. They're counterfeited relatively rarely nowadays (because the scammers know they're not widely accepted, maybe), but counterfeits - in shops that do accept £50 notes - are successful more often because the real notes' scarcity means the person on the till is less familiar with them.

Interestingly, there are only 6 times more £20 notes in circulation than £50 notes, yet whilst £20s are almost ubiquitous, £50s are scarce. Presumably they're all circulating in a relatively small subset of the population??

I would say that the £50 note is in circulation but not circulating in that whoever has them hangs on to them, maybe for a large cash purchase or, more likely, financial institutions hold on to them so if anyone wants to make a large cash withdrawal, they can be given £50 notes.
Cash machines spit out £20s, so they get spent pretty quickly.

 

[johncrossley]

You had me scared for a moment, still got a couple of paper £20 in my wallet. Guess I will have spent them by next year.

Banks and post offices will accept them anyway, probably for years after the withdrawal date. At worst the Bank of England will exchange them by post or at their counter in London.

 

[Busaholic]

I can only speak for myself, naturally, but I'd estimate a high 90's percent first time scan rate and I can't remember any time recently where it didn't work on the second attempt. Could your observation not be easily a case of confirmation bias - you only notice the occasions where people have difficulty, thereby reinforcing the idea that contactless never works?

I'm prepared to admit exaggerating for effect, but I think it probably wouldn't apply to you because I imagine you're both competent and able-bodied, with apologies if I've got any part of that wrong! I could certainly foresee myself, for whom that description no longer applies, if it ever did, having a few goes should I get such a card. My local shop is full of people neither young nor ever in the upper echelons of social class, some of whom are obviously struggling to cope with a relatively new way of paying and maybe a bit scared of it: I'm not being patronising, I share their trepidation.

 

[Dai Corner]

I'm prepared to admit exaggerating for effect, but I think it probably wouldn't apply to you because I imagine you're both competent and able-bodied, with apologies if I've got any part of that wrong! I could certainly foresee myself, for whom that description no longer applies, if it ever did, having a few goes should I get such a card. My local shop is full of people neither young nor ever in the upper echelons of social class, some of whom are obviously struggling to cope with a relatively new way of paying and maybe a bit scared of it: I'm not being patronising, I share their trepidation.

I see lots of elderly and/or disabled people successfully scan their passes first time every time I catch the bus.

 

[najaB]

I'm prepared to admit exaggerating for effect, but I think it probably wouldn't apply to you because I imagine you're both competent and able-bodied, with apologies if I've got any part of that wrong! I could certainly foresee myself, for whom that description no longer applies, if it ever did, having a few goes should I get such a card. My local shop is full of people neither young nor ever in the upper echelons of social class, some of whom are obviously struggling to cope with a relatively new way of paying and maybe a bit scared of it: I'm not being patronising, I share their trepidation.

Oh, I didn't think your comment was aimed at anyone in particular. Just sharing that where people use their card it's actually pretty hard to get it not to work, as long as you hold your card next to the right part of the terminal - with most the reader is behind the screen but occasionally it's on the top. Phones/smartwatches can be a bit more hit and miss because sometimes you need to have the phone unlocked before presenting it, other times you don't.

 

[Hadders]

I'm prepared to admit exaggerating for effect, but I think it probably wouldn't apply to you because I imagine you're both competent and able-bodied, with apologies if I've got any part of that wrong! I could certainly foresee myself, for whom that description no longer applies, if it ever did, having a few goes should I get such a card. My local shop is full of people neither young nor ever in the upper echelons of social class, some of whom are obviously struggling to cope with a relatively new way of paying and maybe a bit scared of it: I'm not being patronising, I share their trepidation.

And there’s never an old biddy in front of you paying with cash faffing around in their purse looking for change….

Most older people I know, having been a little sceptical at first, find using contactless an absolute breeze.

Chip and Pin makes me smile - it’s not been around all that long and many people kicked off when it was being introduced because they wanted to keep signing pieces of paper to confirm their payment.

 

[skyhigh]

I'm prepared to admit exaggerating for effect, but I think it probably wouldn't apply to you because I imagine you're both competent and able-bodied, with apologies if I've got any part of that wrong! I could certainly foresee myself, for whom that description no longer applies, if it ever did, having a few goes should I get such a card. My local shop is full of people neither young nor ever in the upper echelons of social class, some of whom are obviously struggling to cope with a relatively new way of paying and maybe a bit scared of it: I'm not being patronising, I share their trepidation.

In my experience (as someone who frequently dealt with card/cash transactions) contactless was almost always faster and easier than being presented with a handful of change - for both parties. In most cases, you don't even need to touch the card to the reader, hovering it in the right kind of area is good enough to get it to work.

And there’s never an old biddy in front of you paying with cash faffing around in their purse looking for change….

Most older people I know, having been a little sceptical at first, find using contactless an absolute breeze.

Chip and Pin makes me smile - it’s not been around all that long and many people kicked off when it was being introduced because they wanted to keep signing pieces of paper to confirm their payment.

I do find that a lot of people complain at the thought of change - even if that change makes things easier for them.

Since contactless came in, the amount of cash I've used has decreased dramatically. These days I only ever carry cash if I know I'm going to need it. If a shop is cash only, I'll invariably find an alternative instead.

 

[XAM2175]

The vast majority of my contactless transactions are less than £40 so I don't see this as being of any great use to me, but neither am I really concerned about it. I'm sure it'll come in handy one day, if nothing else.

And a bonus anecdote: I worked for a quite a while in a high-volume high-speed-of-service retail environment in the period about ten years ago when electronic transactions were really taking off and we really loathed them because of how much they slowed us down. Chip-and-PIN was a slight improvement in that we didn't have to wait for customers to sign the sales voucher and all that, but it was still tedious compared to cash.

When somebody on the staff found out that the company's bank had started handling contactless payments we all leapt on the idea and within days over a dozen of us had petitioned management with a request we start accepting them - and we never looked back. Even with the initially-low value limits it was a miraculous improvement over chip-and-PIN, and it didn't take long before we were matching cash transaction times with contactless. Plus the reduction in cash handling reduced wrong-change and counting errors, and saved time in the back office too.

I still like using cash every now and again and usually carry a bit for a emergencies - and I'm also a banknote collector so I do feel a faint sadness in the knowledge that they will eventually die out - but contactless payment on the whole is 100% fine by me.

 

[Busaholic]

I see lots of elderly and/or disabled people successfully scan their passes first time every time I catch the bus.

As indeed do I, but there's not the potentially confusing clutter you certainly get in small shops like the Co-Op where the allotted space was created in simpler times plus absence of covid. I suspect there's a lot less that the machine on the bus needs to process from the card pass too.

 

[capitalconnect]

Can anyone tell me how this contactless phone thing works? So is the bank sending your card to your phone instead of giving you a plastic card? And then you scan the card from your phone to the reader? I have never quite understood how it all works when i see people scanning their phone to pay contactless?

 

[Dai Corner]

Can anyone tell me how this contactless phone thing works? So is the bank sending your card to your phone instead of giving you a plastic card? And then you scan the card from your phone to the reader? I have never quite understood how it all works when i see people scanning their phone to pay contactless?

Think of it as having a copy of your debit card on your phone. The bank provides you with the card as normal. The phone app enables you to copy it onto the phone which communicates with the card terminal in the same way as a real card. The phone must have NFC (Near Field Communication) capability.

 

[najaB]

Think of it as having a copy of your debit card on your phone. The bank provides you with the card as normal. The phone app enables you to copy it onto the phone which communicates with the card terminal in the same way as a real card. The phone must have NFC (Near Field Communication) capability.

Rather than copying your existing debit card details to the phone they create a new virtual card that is linked to your account.

 

[mirodo]

In most cases, you don't even need to touch the card to the reader

Hence the name “contactless”…

 

[_toommm_]

Hence the name “contactless”…

It depends how old you are. If you’re of the older generation you may have to make a very forced swipe from right to left (or left to right).

Alternatively, you can lightly tap it and pull it away as quickly as possible, taking the name contactless a bit too literally.

 

[dk1]

Hence the name “contactless”…

Yet I still seem to insist on touching the reader in some form lol.

 

[LAX54]

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.

Its not the value of the transaction, but eveb with £45 it is more likely to get the 'crims' to get hold of the scanner that just debits your card whilst standing behind you, so £100 will just make it even more worthwhile for them !

 

[najaB]

Its not the value of the transaction, but eveb with £45 it is more likely to get the 'crims' to get hold of the scanner that just debits your card whilst standing behind you, so £100 will just make it even more worthwhile for them !

Could you please provide evidence of this actually happening?

 

[LAX54]

Not bothered about it, i seldom spend that much (offline anyway).

You don't need to spend it, the person standing behind you can spend it for you you won't know until you get a statement or your card is refused.

Could you please provide evidence of this actually happening?

Think it has been widely reported over the years, but no one is bothered as such, as the banks (so far) always refund the money, it is why the RFD wallets were invented.

 

[londonteacher]

As has been shown on this post it's extremely unlikely.

There are probably 1000’s of contactless cards travelling in just London alone everyday, if that was an issue it would be widespread and well publicised.

Halifax - Internet Banking - Error

www.halifax.co.uk

Just people resistant to change. It's happening whether you like it or not!

 

[najaB]

Think it has been widely reported over the years

It's been widely claimed over the years.

...it is why the RFD wallets were invented.

Yeah, because nobody ever tried to make money by selling a cure to a non-existent problem.