Lloyds Offers Flexible Contactless Limits

Lloyds Banking Group has announced that customers will be able to reduce the contactless payment limit on their bank cards from next month if they are concerned about fraudulent payments.

They are the first banking group to announce this feature, although it is expected that others will soon follow suit. It comes as the contactless payment limit across all banks is set to increase in October to £100.

Flexibility Over Fraud Fears

The problem for customers is that many are concerned that, if they lose their bank card, someone could easily find it and then spend it freely since contactless payments often don’t require verification.

So, when the contactless limit increases to £100, customers could quickly have their accounts emptied by someone who went on a spending spree across multiple shops.

The move by Lloyds will allow customers to reduce the limit through simple controls in the mobile. They can choose any £5 increment between £30 and £95 if they want to cut the limit down, or they can remove the functionality for contactless payments altogether, which may be preferred if they are concerned that they could lose their bank card without realising it, and therefore not have time to freeze the card before someone uses it.

The update will be available to all customers of a Lloyds Banking Group bank — namely Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland. Customers will not be able to increase the limit beyond £100.

We’ve listened to customer feedback to introduce this option which will allow them to make the most of the £100 limit in a way that works for them.

Philip Robinson, a Lloyds director

Contactless Payment History

Contactless payments were first introduced in the UK in 2007 by Barclaycard, who created the OnePulse card that could be used to pay at various Transport for London (TfL) payment terminals. The payment limit for this initial card and subsequent contactless cards was set at £10 initially.

This rose by £5 to a £15 limit in 2010, a year before Barclaycard partnered with mobile provider Orange to create Quick Tap, the first service to allow people to pay using their phone and a contactless reader.

In 2012, the PayBand was the first wearable payment device in the UK, also created by Barclaycard. Payment limits increased by another £5 to £20.

In 2015, the limit was increased once again, this time taking it to £30 where it remained for a long time as contactless payments became much more widely used. It was during this time that many banks started looking at ways of increasing security, including sometimes refusing contactless payments and asking users to verify using their app or PIN.

In 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the limit was raised to £45 to make it easier for more people to pay using a contactless method to minimise physical contact with buttons etc. in stores. The October 2021 rise to £100 is by far the largest increase so far.