The decision to raise the limit was made by the Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority following a public consultation and discussions with the retail and banking sectors.
The last time the limit was raised was relatively recently – a more modest £30 to £45 in April 2020. While already in consideration for some time, that rise was expedited due to the Covid-19 pandemic as a way to minimise the amount of necessary contact in retail stores.
While the new £100 limit will be available from the October date, it will take some time to be introduced across all retailers, UK Finance said, given the number of terminals that will need to be updated to accept the new limit.
Alternatives such as mobile payments platforms like Apple Pay or Google Pay do not have an upper limit when authenticated through biometric technologies like fingerprint or facial recognition.
David Postings, chief executive of UK Finance, said: “Contactless payment has proved very popular...