Current $200 Contactless PIN limit now permanent

11/24/2021

 

The current contactless PIN limit of $200 will remain in place permanently for Visa contactless credit and debit card payments, meaning Visa transactions up to $200 can be made without the need for a PIN.

Visa’s Country Manager for New Zealand and South Pacific, Anthony Watson, said the company has carefully considered the needs of consumers, retailers, financial institutions, and industry, who want the convenience of tap to pay - particularly since the emergence of COVID-19 - while ensuring payment security.

“Keeping the limit at $200 permanently aims to balance convenience while fulfilling our responsibility to maintain security in the payment experience. Fraud rates have remained stable over the past year, globally at historic lows, and this new limit is a positive move to ensure that trend continues, while offering consumers and merchants the convenience of tapping to pay.

“The contactless PIN limit was temporarily raised to $200 during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Since then, we have been working with our industry partners to determine what the right balance of security and convenience should be, and have decided that the current $200 limit will become permanent moving forward,” said Watson.

The new limit is consistent with many other geographies, including the UK, US, Singapore and Canada, to name a few. 

Contactless payments are one of the most secure ways to pay at point of sale and receive the same real-time network monitoring and fraud detection as any other Visa payment. The technology offers consumers and merchants multiple benefits:

  • Customers can pay in seconds using contactless cards, mobiles or wearables. Faster transaction speeds enable merchants to increase revenue by serving more customers at peak times1.
  • Customers are likely to return to locations where transactions are frictionless and perceive these retailers as forward thinking, innovative and customer centric.
  • Contactless payments offer a simple and convenient point of sale experience.

This new contactless PIN limit reinforces Visa’s commitment to offer customers and merchants innovative and flexible payment solutions. For more information, customers and merchants should contact their local bank.

 

1 Merchant Contactless Study, May 2018

 

About Visa

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.