Emmanuel Macron confirmed it at the start of the week, the deconfinement will begin (little by little) on May 11. On the same date,the contactless payment limit with a bank card will increase from €30 to €50. While the rumor had been circulating for several weeks, this decision was finally confirmed by the French Banking Federation a few hours ago.
Stops la propagation du virus
In recent weeks, several voices have been raised to support raising the ceiling. To prevent the spread of the virus, physical contact should be reduced to the strict minimum. “Classic” payment by bank card, with insertion of the PIN code on the payment terminals, is a headache for many French people. As for “contactless” payment by card, it was limited to €30 until now.
The General Director of Boursorama, Benoit Grisoni,explained in a long interview to our colleagues at Presse-citron, that the bank had strongly encouraged its customers to migrate to solutions likeApple Payand Google Pay, which avoid having to type the PIN code into a machine. These “mobile” payment methods are by default uncapped (in particular because authentication by Touch ID or Face ID are more secure than a traditional code), which allows larger amounts to be paid without any physical contact.
Do not destabilize the system
If the increase in the ceiling will only come into effect at that time, it is because the implementation could not “be done overnight, in a hurry, without risking destabilizing a system that works well”, says the general interest group Cartes Bancaires.The president of the FBF, also CEO of the Société Générale group, affirmed this morning that the conditions were now met, and that raising the ceiling“is now possible”.
France was one of the last European countries to take the plunge, while around twenty nations on the continent had already taken this measure at the end of March. The project was significant, and the “heavy and delicate” IT industrialization largely delayed its implementation. For merchants to be able to accept contactless payment of up to €50, the million and a half available payment terminals will also need to be updated.
This ceiling increase will concern no less than60 million compatible bank cardswith contactless payment. In 2019, no less than 2 billion payments were made “contactless”, for a cumulative amount of 22.5 billion euros. Mobile payment still remains marginal, since 4 to 5 million transactions were carried out in 2018 according to figures from the Banque de France.
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