Danske Bank gives customers flexibility to control contactless transactions as UK limit increases to £100

From today (October 15) customers will be able to spend up to £100 per contactless transaction and all current cards which have contactless functionality will have this limit increased automatically – some retailers may take some time to update their terminals to the new limit, so it may vary in different places. Fraud controls, which will require PIN verification from time to time remain in place.

But Danske has also introduced a new option for personal customers to choose their own contactless transaction limit with any whole number from £0 up to the maximum of £100.

This can be done through Danske Bank’s Mobile 3.0 app, or by contacting the bank at a branch or via its Customer Direct team. The solution also goes live on October 15.

In April 2020 a joint industry decision was made to raise the individual contactless purchase limit from £30 to £45 as part of the national COVID-19 response strategy. The national increase in contactless limits was designed to reduce the need for contact with PIN entry keypads at Point of Sale.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced a further rise to £100 earlier this year, saying that the contactless limit increase would “make it easier than ever before for people to pay for their shopping, providing a welcome boost to retail”.

Recent statistics from UK Finance show the number of contactless payments in the UK increased by 12% during 2020, to 9.6 billion payments and that contactless payments accounted for more than a quarter of all UK payments. In the last four years, contactless payments have gone from being just 7% of all payments in the UK, to 27%.

Vicki Hassan, Operations Director at Danske Bank, said: “There has been a noticeable rise in the number and value of contactless transactions in recent years, so we welcome today’s increase in the contactless limit and hope it has the desired effect in helping to boost spending across the economy.

“However, we also believe it is important that our customers have choice, so we have addressed some concerns that were raised about the new higher limit by giving personal customers the flexibility to set their own limits from £0-100.”

Vicki added: “While the limits go up today we would remind customers that it might take time for some retailers and business owners to update terminals, so limits may be different in certain shops over the next few weeks and months.”