A major change which could affect the way you pay for your weekly shop is being considered by regulators.
The cap on contactless card payments could be scrapped, meaning shoppers would be able to spend more money without having to use their PIN.
Currently, contactless payments are limited to purchases of up to £100.
However, with food inflation soaring, regulators are considering scrapping the limit and letting banks and payment providers set their own.
The Financial Conduct Authority issued a letter to the Government on the steps it is taking to support growth.
In the letter, it suggested it could remove the £100 contactless limit – this in turn would ‘allow firms and customers greater flexibility and level the playing field with digital wallets’.
The move would bring the UK in line with the US, where there is no fixed limit. This allows customers in shops to use contactless for the majority of their payments and transactions.
In October, a study by UK Finance found contactless payments accounted for 65 per cent of all credit card and 77 per cent of all debit card transactions.
Overall Britons made 1.6billion contactless card transactions in that month.
Contactless payments were first introduced in 2007 with a cap of £10. The limit gradually increased until 2021 when the £100 limit came in.
Users of Apple Pay and Google Pay can already make contactless payments over the £100 limit.
Apple Pay works by adding your payment card to your wallet app and then using face or fingerprint recognition to confirm the payment.
Google Pay works by users taking a photo of their card before using the app to pay.
Experts fear the change could create a problem for stolen bank cards as victims could theoretically lose more money before a card is blocked.
A spokesman for UK Finance said: ‘We are continuing to speak to the FCA to understand their thinking and plans.
‘We understand they are looking at whether industry can have greater involvement and flexibility in the limit in the future.’
The suggestion by the FCA was one of the changes it is considering to help secure growth.
Other suggestions include relaxing mortgage rules to make it easier for first time buyers to get on the property ladder.
They also suggested requiring firms to accept electronic verification of death to speed up bereavement claims in insurance.
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