Card issuers limit contactless payments before the PIN is entered: (i) to a maximum amount per transaction (typically, low-value payments), and (ii) to an overall amount or number of successive contactless transactions.

As a rule, bank customers may only make a contactless payment (i.e. without inserting the card in the POS and entering the associated PIN) if the value of the transaction is below €50 and the overall amount or number of successive contactless transactions is a maximum of €150 or 5 transactions (the entity that issues the card can set lower limits).

At times, as a supplementary security measure, the PIN may be required even when limits set by the card issuer are not exceeded.

The card issuer must inform the customer about the conditions of use of the contactless card, more specifically on limits to their use when no PIN associated with the card is entered.