Halifax, Santander, Barclays, NatWest and HSBC update contactless rules after new £100 limit

Halifax, Santander, Barclays, NatWest, HSBC and other banks have updated their contactless rules.

On Friday, the contactless card transaction limit will increase from £45 to £100, meaning more opportunities to use tap and go payments where once cash might have been used.

When contactless payments were first introduced in 2007 there were capped at £10. This was raised to £20 in 2012 and to £30 in 2015.

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During the pandemic, the upper limit jumped to £45 as an increasingly hygiene-conscious public moved away from using cash.

Chief executive of trade body UK Finance, David Postings, said: "Contactless payment has proved very popular with consumers and an increasing number of transactions are being made using contactless technology.

"The increase in the limit to £100 will allow people to pay for higher value transactions like their weekly shop or filling up their car with fuel.

"The payments industry has worked hard to put in place the infrastructure to enable retailers to update their payments systems so they can start to offer their customers this new higher limit."

But some banks have their own rules and will let you set your own limit.

Barclays

Barclays will not allow you to set your own limit, however, you can opt-out of contactless payments on the app, online or by phone.

Barclays said: "The £100 limit should be adopted.

"The new limit will help you provide an improved and consistent consumer experience regardless of where they make purchases."

Halifax

Halifax will allow you to set your own limit on debit cards.

Customers can set the limit in increments of £5 and set a spending cap for their contactless card from £35 up to £95.

HSBC

HSBC does not offer the ability to set individual contactless limits.

However, you can opt-out of contactless payments on the app, online or by phone.

Lloyds Bank

Lloyds will allow you to set your own limit on debit cards.

Customers can set the limit in increments of £5 and set a spending cap for their contactless card from £35 up to £95.

Nationwide

Nationwide will not allow you to set your own limit.

If you’d rather not have the contactless feature on your card at all, you can order a non-contactless card.

NatWest

NatWest will not allow you to set your own limit.

However, you can opt-out of contactless payments on the app.

RBS

RBS will not allow you to set your own limit.

You can remove contactless payments on the app.

Santander

Santander does not offer the ability to set individual contactless limits.

You can turn off contactless payments on your debit or credit card at any time.

However, turning off contactless payments is only available for Mastercard customers.

TSB

TSB does not offer the ability to set individual contactless limits.

But customers can choose not to have a contactless card.

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