There’s no logical reason why Apple Pay transaction costs should be limited, but in the U.K. users have been stuck with a limit of £20 ($30) since the service first debuted in July.
Thanks to the rise of people using both Apple Pay and contactless cards in general, however, that number has now been increased by 50 percent to £30 ($46).
Contactless transactions for the first half of 2015 totalled £2.5bn in the U.K., which is already significantly higher than the £2.32bn spent in 2014.
“We’ve seen unprecedented growth in this area, with the number of Visa contactless transactions more than trebling in the past year in the UK,” said Kevin Jenkins, managing director UK and Ireland at Visa Europe — describing contactless payments as the “new normal.”
While Apple Pay only arrived in the U.K. last month — and therefore can’t claim to have positively influenced the figures (unless you argue the publicity around Apple Pay in the U.S. helped spread awareness of the technology) — it does show that Apple picked the perfect time to introduce Apple Pay into its second market.
According to the U.K. Cards Association, the new £30 limit means that the average supermarket spend of £25 ($38) will now be covered. The increased limit covers both all NFC payments, including Apple Pay and contactless cards.
All in all, it’s a great move for U.K. customers, although with contactless fraud incidence being so low, does Apple Pay even need a limit at all?
Source: BBC
