Contactless payments explained
Paying without cash or PIN has gone from novelty to normal. Whether it’s tapping your debit card at the corner shop or waving your phone for the weekly shop, contactless payments are now the UK’s favourite way to spend. This guide explains how they actually work, what the £100 limit is all about and whether it's really safe.
What is contactless payment?
You’ve probably used it without thinking – the quick “tap, beep, done” way to pay. Contactless means you don’t need to faff with chip & PIN or cash; your card, phone or smart watch has a tiny chip that securely transmits payment details.
Cards: Almost all new UK debit and credit cards are contactless.
Smartphones: Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Wallet let you add your card to your device.
Wearables: Smartwatches, fitness bands and even rings can do it too.
Originally capped for coffee-and-sandwich spends, it exploded during COVID when people avoided touching keypads. Limits have risen over time from £10 way back in 2007, to £100 today. There are even plans to increase this limit further.
How does contactless work?
It looks simple, but there’s neat tech behind that beep. Your card or device uses Near-Field Communication (NFC) to send an encrypted one-time code to the card reader — not your actual card number.
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Tap your card, phone or wearable against the reader showing the contactless symbol.
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Wait for the beep or on-screen tick, and you’re done.
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Most payments under £100 don’t need a PIN, though random checks can pop up.
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With Apple Pay/Google Pay, your fingerprint or Face ID is the check — which is why you can spend above the usual £100 limit.
UK contactless limits and verification
There’s a bit of confusion here, so let’s clear it up. The UK card limit is £100 per transaction, but that doesn’t mean you’ll always sail through.
Cards: Tap under £100, usually no problem. But if you’ve done several in a row, you may be asked for your PIN.
Phones and wearables: Biometric checks (fingerprint, face) mean the £100 cap doesn’t apply – some merchants set their own limits for mobile payments, as do some banks and card providers. But you'll typically be ok to pay for your big weekly shop on Apple Pay or Google Pay without a problem.
Possible changes: The FCA is currently reviewing whether to scrap the £100 cap altogether and let banks set their own limits. For many, this raises fraud concerns – reflected in the FCA's own survey, which showed 78% of respondants didn't want the £100 cap to be changed. As of September 2025, these plans remain in the consultation phase, so it could be a while before we see any changes come into effect.
Benefits of contactless payments
The big draw is obvious: it saves you time and hassle. But dig deeper and there are other perks too.
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Speed & convenience: This is an obvious one, but it's clearly quicker to tap and go than insert the card and enter a PIN (and we've come a long way since the days of writing our signitures!) Assuming a contactless payment shaves 10 seconds off a transaction versus chip and PIN making 20 contactless payments a week works out to over three hours saved a year.
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Security built in: Details are tokenised (which is the technical term for masking) so even if someone skims a reader near you, they can’t get your real card number. Phones add another layer of security with biometrics.
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Hygiene: Less of an issue now, but during COVID every effort was made to avoid physical contact. That habit appears to have stuck, and many people now prefer to “tap and go”.
Risks and precautions
Contactless is mostly safe, but don’t get complacent. Here are some common snags to watch for:
Lost/stolen cards: Thieves can tap for up to £100 a time until you report it. By law, you’re only liable for up to £50 before you notify the bank or card provider, and you're not liable for any further fraud after you notify it – so don’t delay reporting it. And the bank or card provider may not have to cover your losses if you've been grossly negligent (ie: you wrote the PIN on the back of the card).
Digital wallet fraud: Banks often rely on one-time passcodes (OTPs) when you first set up Apple/Google Pay. Criminals have exploited these, which has been widely reported by consumer watchdogs such as Which? Regulators are pushing for stronger checks, and some banks already use more secure methods like having customers add digital cards through their own apps.
Overspending: Without PIN “friction”, it can be easy to splash more than you mean. If the £100 cap is scrapped, you could use alerts or budgeting apps to keep yourself in check.
If you lose your card or phone, cancel/block it immediately. Don’t hang about – speed matters.
How to set up and use contactless
Setting up is usually painless, but here’s the lowdown:
Once activated, just tap. Your first contactless payment may require you to use your PIN to “unlock” the feature.
Open the Wallet app, add your card, and confirm with your bank (likely via an SMS One Time Password or a call). Face ID or Touch ID confirms it’s you each time. Lost your phone? Suspend Apple Pay instantly via Find My iPhone.
Download Google Wallet or use your bank’s app (likely via an SMS One Time Password or a call). Authenticate with fingerprint or PIN, then tap away. No £100 cap as long as biometrics are enabled. Suspend Google Pay instantly via Google Find My Device.
Works much like Google Pay – open the Samsung Wallet app, add your card, and confirm with your bank (likely via an SMS One Time Password or a call). Lost your phone? Suspend Samsung Wallet instantly via Find My Mobile.
Contactless Cards
Apple Pay
Google Pay
Samsung Wallet
Contactless FAQs
It’s a security check. Banks use it to confirm it’s really you, especially if you’ve done a run of tap-and-go payments in a row or spent over the cumulative threshold. Think of it as a quick “are you still there?” test.
Yes. Most banks let you switch it off if you’d rather stick to chip-and-PIN. Some let you disable or re-enable it straight from their app.
Yes – it’s considered one of the safest ways to pay. Your card number is tokenised (scrambled into a one-off code) and, if anything ever goes wrong, consumer protection rules mean you shouldn’t be left out of pocket.
Not yet. The £100 ceiling is under review by the FCA, but there’s no confirmed change.
Why do I sometimes have to put my PIN in, even for contactless?
Can I opt out of contactless on my card?
Is contactless safe?
Will the £100 contactless limit go away?
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