The terminal was odd too. About 3 times as big as the usual POS makes and with your card tapped on a contactless area on one side not the top.
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Those are widely used by BP in the UK. Also, not supporting online PIN isn’t odd - it’s the norm in Britain. I think I’ve seen one report (on here) of online PIN being supported in the UK, but support is very rare here.
Nothing seems that rare, other than how few other shops use the same terminal, and Monzo allowing signature CVM for contactless in the UK (do they normally, or was this just a one off at a shop that was in your normal spending patterns - remember, they may be risk scoring it much higher for that, but still under the decline threshold if it fit your spending patterns).
I don’t know if it is normal or not at that garage (a BP franchise not centrally owned) as I don’t regularly visit that garage (last time I went to that town I did not need fuel - I will have to go with an empty tank next time) but tried it with no luck at 2 other BP garages in Braintree and Colchester.
Do they also support high value contactless (let you tap for over £30), but Monzo declines? Or do they not yet support it? Or, possibly, support it for CDCVM but have signature disabled? What about other shops?
@anon30489002 you really deserve a tl;dr at this point. Basically @anon44204028 and I are discussing your question of a contactless limit. The answer is that there’s no real good, solid answer. A safe bet in the UK is always the CVM limit of £30. CVM means Cardholder Verification Method, and up to £30, shops in the UK aren’t required to verify the cardholder for contactless.
If you want to spend over £30 by contactless, it’s best to use your phone. Android Pay uses something called CDCVM where the phone’s lock screen (for Android Pay, competing Pays implement CDCVM slightly differently) serves as cardholder verification. It’s widely supported by the vast majority of shops, and generally approved by Monzo.
If you really want to spend over £30 contactless by card, there’s two supported ways this can happen. You might be asked to enter your PIN - but very few shops in the UK support this. You might also be asked to sign, but even if this is supported and approved, frankly, it’s more of a pain than inserting your card…
I only discovered the one odd garage by mistake tapping it without remembering it was over £30 and the fact it worked and printed out a receipt for signing shocked both me and the lady behind the counter. Elsewhere I have just done card insert chip and pin for speed rather than try contactless chip and sign or contactless chip and pin only to have it fail and have to try another method.
It is tempting to drive round trying various garages but my tank would probably only permit a couple of trys over £30 
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More places take contactless than just petrol stations. Personally, I don’t want to see how often it works due to embarrassment and hassle.
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It would be chosen when the terminal doesn’t support online PIN, I believe. Since offline PIN isn’t (and can’t) be in the CVM list for contactless, signature follows online PIN. I would expect you to decline this though in countries like the UK where you know virtually all terminals support offline PIN (so people insert it).
Am I missing something in my understanding?
Also, who is liable for lost/stolen fraud if signature is approved for high value contactless in the UK? Do stores have to support online PIN in the UK to be protected? I know they do in the US (except for Visa), so this fraud would fall on the merchant. But I don’t know if there’s an online PIN liability shift in the UK.
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I had previously reported in this community my use of contactless and signature at a petrol station for amounts higher than £30. However, with the new CA card it is no longer possible. I put this down to older cards having a different chip configuration or the merchant’s POS being malconfigured.
They have also replaced their old bulky terminals with contactless reader on the side with new flatter Ingenico POS with the reader awkwardly furthest away from the customer nearer to the merchant, which can’t be good for some customers.
What is the message you get? Ideally the response from Monzo should be declined reason code 65 (withdrawal limit exceeded), which the terminal should react to with an insert card prompt.
not sure code merchant side but customer side terminal says to insert card and enter PIN.
The chip and pin purchase appears in the Monzo app, the declined contactless over £30 limit does not.
Did it try to authorise the contactless online or was the insert card message instant?
message instant
Interesting. Makes me wonder if Monzo has changed the chip to offline decline these, or if BP has changed their programming to not attempt signature over £30 (because from a bit more reading, my understanding is that they’d be liable for fraud if their system didn’t support online PIN - lost/stolen liability shift in the UK SEEMS to require both online and offline PIN).
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To clarify this was not a BP owned BP garage but a BP franchise, so POS set up may not mirror that of other BP garages
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Indeed. Interesting either way.
In Greece i have experience the following 
Paying for items over £30, they tap the contactless card (UK bank card), and then ask for the PIN to be tapped in the reader. There is no need to insert the card in the reader.
The items were over 60 Euros, which of course is over the 30 Euro limit
When in UK, they always insist to insert the card into the machine if its over £30 … hmmm
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This is because in Greece, most terminals are programmed to support online PIN, in the UK they only support offline PIN. Offline PIN doesn’t work on contactless, online PIN does.
Now, contactless can support signature for verification, but this is much less likely to be approved. The correct response should be a reason code 65 (withdrawal limit exceeded) decline.
Now, as for why most shops in the UK don’t support online PIN… does anyone know? It requires the encryption public keys be loaded into terminals, but how hard can that be? All ATMs are online PIN…
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I’m 90% sure I’ve spent over £30 with contactless and when I tapped my card it asked for my pin. I don’t think I put the card in either.
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I used to live in Spain, where contactless works slightly differently. Any transaction under 15€ or 20€ (I can’t remember) does not need the PIN, but over this number, the card is tapped and the PIN is entered. If I remember correctly, this is also the case in Belgium, but considering that their local Chip-and-PIN transactions (Bancontact) are almost instant, contactless is disabled on most terminals.
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