You couldn’t make this up. The government has ordered the Financial Conduct Authority to come up with bright ideas to stimulate the economy (after other government policy has sent it in the opposite direction). Their latest wheeze, published today, is to make contactless card payments unlimited in value. I kid you not.
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/proposed-contactless-changes-could-increase-convenience-consumers
This means that if someone steals a contactless card they can spend as much as they like from your bank account. But don’t worry, the FCA says the banks will have to refund you if it happens.
Part of their justification is that digital wallets (Apple Pay and Google Pay) allow for much higher contactless transactions than the current £100 limit. For anything over £100 and the card system asks for a PIN to prove it’s really you. Even with that safeguard, criminals make a series of transactions of around £90 before the banks fraud system detects something suspicious.
You might remember that the contactless limit was £30 from 2015 to pandemic, after which it was raised to £45 and then £100 in 2021 to reduce the amount of contaminated cash in circulation. It was never reduced, which some say was a mistake.
The difference between physical cards and Apple Pay/Google Wallet is that they require you to unlock the phone first, which is arguably more secure than a four-digit PIN. Claiming that because these are unlimited that the PIN security should be stripped from physical cards is the craziest thing I’ve heard in years. And the FCA is going out of its way to blame the government.