Hello Monzo Community.
Any idea 
on Monzo’s MasterCard Daily Contactless spending limit?
Just like the £30 daily payment 
limit by various debit contactless cards offered by Banks & Building Societies; is it same with Monzo Contactless or less?
@SammyRichard There is no separate limit for contactless. When you pay via contactless at the shop, it will be like POS payment. There are no limits on POS payments as of right now (apart from max single payment, which will be £1000 for normal verified users).
I’m not sure if there are any ATMs that allow contactless cash withdrawals, but if there are - such withdrawal would be linked to ATM withdrawal limits - this is however my assumption.
I think there is legal limit imposed by the government of 30£ per transaction. There is no limit on the daily amount.
1 Like
Many Thanks @Avishai.
However, I think @alietors response hits it straight head on.
£30 per single contactless transaction.
1 Like
The limit varies from country to country and there can be certain exceptions for individual account holders. The contactless limit in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland is £30 but the limits in other countries vary. Also a bank can set a lower limit on an individual card, such as on accounts for under 18s.
1 Like
Yes there are. Barclays are currently experimenting with a few
If you go to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contactless_payment you will see a list of contactless limits (floor limits) for many countries.
This list also details if there are any conditions such as being forced to enter PIN after three consecutive contactless transactions, or only being able to do three a day and the rest having to be chip and PIN.
Canada has an interesting system as there is no industry wide limit agreed and limits are set by the merchant’s bank or card processor and by the card holder’s bank or card issuer.
Android Pay works over £30. Did it in IKEA once. Maybe unlocking your phone is considered as secure as entering a card PIN.
Oh, I see! I got confused because you mentioned ‘daily’ limit and I got stuck thinking that daily contactless limit on POS transactions doesn’t exist. 
That is correct. PINs and signatures are methods used to verify that the person with the card is authorised to make that transaction (known as Cardholder Verification Methods or CVMs).
Android Pay, Apple Pay, and other mobile EMV systems use what’s called CDCVM (Consumer Device Cardholder Verification Method). Effectively trusting the device to verify the user using methods such as fingerprint, password, or passcode. In theory, it’s as good as a PIN, though many merchants still have not updated their payment processing chain to accept it.
Apple have a fairly good page that goes in to a little more detail.
And you can find a very rough list of merchants who support CDCVM here.
In short, the £30 per transaction limit is there on regular contactless cards (and Android Pay while the device is locked) because there is no CVM to verify you as the proper cardholder. It limits damage that can potentially be done in one hit, especially with cards from traditional banks that will work offline and don’t give you instant notifications or ability to really freeze your card.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.