Starling Bank is to let customers set their own contactless limit, noting little demand and a fair degree of concern over the raising of the contactless ceiling to £100 later this week.
The upcoming hike in the contactless spending limit on consumer debit cards has raised fears that they could become a target for fraudsters, who can escape unchecked for at least five transactions up to a maximum of £300 when tapping to pay at high street retailers.
CEO Anne Boden says: “The benefit of being a digital bank is the ability to listen to customers and implement wanted changes quickly. Analysing our spending data we can see that there appears to be little demand for the increased contactless limit and that many would like to retain the same contactless limit or even reduce it.”
Starling Bank follows Lloyds Bank in giving customers more control over contactless spending, enabling users to set a lower limit from within its banking app. The limit can be decreased from £100 in increments of £10, right down to zero, which will turn off contactless payments completely.