Your contactless card

The contactless card payment limit will rise from £45 to £100 

UK retailers and merchants will start making the change from 15th October 2021 but it may take some time for all retailers to allow the higher contactless transaction limit of £100.

How contactless technology works

If you want to pay for a sandwich, cup of coffee, or any purchase of up to £45, contactless technology is a fast, easy and secure way to do it. You don’t need to enter your card PIN, just place your contactless card over the contactless reader and the payment is made.

• use your card wherever you see the Contactless Indicator
• pay for purchases of up to £45 in seconds without entering your PIN
• your card never leaves your hand when making a payment
• choose whether you pay with contactless or chip and PIN for smaller purchases.

Using your contactless card

To start using your contactless card use it at least once with your PIN, then follow the steps below to start making contactless payments:

1. When paying for purchases of up to £45, look for the Contactless Indicator
2. Touch the reader with your contactless card
3. Confirm successful payment when you see the green light and hear the beep
4. The reader will confirm that your payment is approved
    

If you touch your purse or wallet containing more than one contactless card on a reader you could experience card clash. Therefore we strongly recommend that you remove the card you want to use from your wallet or purse when touching the reader to make sure the right card is used. But don’t worry, if you do present two cards to the reader by mistake, only one payment will be taken because the card readers are only able to make one transaction at a time.

Making payments without entering any security details or a PIN may raise some concerns. We’d like to reassure you just how safe and secure contactless payments actually are.

Contactless uses the latest secure encryption technology (the same as chip and PIN) so you can feel confident when using it to pay for things. It only works when a card is close to the card reader. This makes it virtually impossible for any details to be intercepted while in use. For extra protection, sometimes you may have to enter your PIN during a contactless transaction just to make sure it’s always you using the card. To make sure cards cannot be intercepted and used fraudulently, new contactless cards won’t work until you complete a Chip and PIN transaction or ATM withdrawal.

• You’ll have a record of all your everyday purchases on your account statement
• The contactless card readers can only carry out one transaction at a time; each transaction must be complete or void before another can take place
• You can’t unknowingly make a purchase as you walk past a reader because the retailer must have entered the amount for you to approve first, and then your card has to be held within a few centimetres of the reader for longer than half a second.

If your card is lost or stolen, you’re protected against fraud provided you let us know as soon as you realise your card is lost or stolen and you’ve taken the proper precautions to keep your card and security details safe, as outlined in our terms and conditions.

If your card is lost or stolen or you think that it or the personal security details or card number may be misused, or that someone may know your personal security details or PIN, you must tell us as soon as possible by calling 0330 678 2811 or you can call us on 0800 9 173 489 (freephone).

If you’re an existing customer with an eligible cahoot current account or credit card, you’ll automatically receive a contactless card when your current one expires.

When you get your new contactless card, you must use it for a normal chip and PIN transaction or ATM withdrawal before making a contactless purchase (so we know you’ve received your card). Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to make contactless payments.

Making your payments more secure 

To help protect you and your money, all UK banks are now introducing more frequent verification checks to let us know it's you when making a purchase online. 

You'll need to make sure that your mobile number is up to date so we can send you a One Time Passcode.

If your card payment is declined, the retailer may not have updated their functionality to allow this authentication to take place, which means you may need to check if they offer an alternative payment method.

To learn more about these checks, please visit our Strong Customer Authentication page.