Chancellor set to increase contactless payment limit to £100

Rishi Sunak is set to more than double the limit shoppers can splash out using contactless cards and phones to £100 today – giving a big boost to retailers as the economy unlocks again.

It puts bigger ticket items and little luxuries, from smart shirts to hampers, in range of instant payments that do not even require a signature or even a pin number.

It is the second rise in the limit, the first increase was from £30 to £45 last April.

In his Budget this afternoon, the Chancellor is set to the booming popularity of “pinging” payments during the Covid-19 pandemic, as shoppers and retailers shunned cash which might carry the virus.

Experts at the Treasury believe easier transactions will give an extra shot in the arm to the struggling London retail sector, worth over £31 billion, when it is allowed to open, helping to support jobs and businesses.

Britons now spend tens of billions of pounds every quarter using the contactless system, and there is not thought to have been a marked increase in fraudulent transactions since the limit last spring.