Spending limit on contactless card payments to increase
Spending limit to rise to £30.
The spending limit on contactless card payments is to be raised to £30 from September 2015.
As it stands, shoppers can spend up to £20 a transaction with contactless cards. The limit was £10 when it was introduced back in 2007.
Contactless payment has become increasingly popular in the UK, with 58 million contactless credit and debit cards in circulation.
Transactions have more than tripled in the last year too, with payments rising to £2.32 billion in 2014.
Cardholders used contactless on 319 million occasions last year, with one transaction processed every ten seconds on average, according to figures from the UK Cards Association.
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Capital boost
London’s transport network has been partly responsible for the surge, following the introduction of contactless payments across Transport for London in September last year.
Since then, 41 million of the UK’s contactless transactions were on a London bus or tube. The city’s commuters made up around one in ten of all UK contactless payments in December.
In the capital, 30% of all transactions under £20 were contactless, followed by Leeds (27%) and Cambridge (15%).
However, there is still a way to go as contactless payments only made up 2.7% of overall card transactions last year.
Where you can use contactless cards
You can use your card wherever you see the contactless logo. It’s just a simple case of holding your card over the reader to make a payment.
The list of eligible retailers is considerable, including Aldi, Costa Coffee, J D Wetherspoon and the Co-op Pharmacy. And on top of London transport, you can use them on Stagecoach buses and the M6 toll.
Just be aware that for anti-fraud purposes, you will be asked to enter your PIN every few payments.
How to protect yourself from unwanted payments
There are still some security concerns surrounding contactless cards, particularly with accidental payments or ‘card clash’.
The best advice is to keep your contactless card separate from other readable cards when you're using them. To minimise the chances of 'collision', readers are designed to take one payment from one card at any one time, which also means you won't be charged twice on the same card. For extra peace of mind, you can buy a security sleeve which will disable the contactless card until you take it out of your wallet.
If you’re not doing so already, check your bank statements regularly and thoroughly. As payments are under £20, accidental transactions might be easier to overlook.
And if you do get charged twice go to the retailer - not your bank or building society - to claim a refund.
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