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Faster Payments limits, explained

The Faster Payments Service has a maximum transaction value of £1 million, raised from £250,000 on 10 February 2022. That is the scheme ceiling, not an entitlement: each payment service provider sets its own limits within it, and most set them a long way below. The number that governs your transfer is your bank's, not the scheme's.

By the VIP360 editorial team: a team including former FCA, MAS and MGA regulators · Reviewed for accuracy by VIP360 compliance · Updated 6 August 2026

There are two Faster Payments limits, and nearly every argument about them comes from confusing the first with the second.

The scheme limit is £1 million per transaction. Pay.UK raised it from £250,000 on 10 February 2022, in response to demand from corporate customers who wanted a route for higher-value payments.

Your bank's limit is whatever your bank decided, and for most personal accounts it is a small fraction of that. Pay.UK is explicit that providers are not required to offer the full amount, stating that any increase a provider makes to its own limit sits in the competitive space and that customers should ask their own provider what their limit is.

So the £1 million figure is real, widely quoted, and almost never the number that governs the payment you are trying to make.

Why your bank sets a lower one

The limit is a fraud control rather than a technical ceiling. Faster Payments arrive in seconds and are close to irreversible once sent, which is exactly what makes them useful and exactly what makes them attractive to fraudsters running authorised push payment scams.

A lower ceiling caps the damage from any single instruction, whether that instruction came from a criminal or from someone typing a figure wrongly at eleven at night. Providers set it against their own risk appetite, their fraud losses and their customer base, which is why the numbers differ so much between banks that are otherwise similar.

Reimbursement rules for authorised push payment fraud have tightened in recent years, which gives providers a direct financial interest in the size of the largest mistake a customer can make in one click.

The limits that actually exist

Most providers run several at once, and people usually discover the second one only after clearing the first.

  • Per transaction. The most a single payment can be.
  • Daily total. The most that can leave in a day across all payments. This is the one that catches people mid-way through a sequence of transfers.
  • Per payee. Some providers cap how much can go to one recipient in a period.
  • New payee limits. A lower ceiling for the first hours or days after a payee is added, sometimes with a cooling-off period before large amounts are allowed.
  • Channel differences. The app, online banking, telephone banking and the branch frequently have different limits on the same account. The app is commonly the most restrictive.
  • Account type. Personal, business and premium tiers are treated differently, and business limits are often set against what the account actually does.

Before a large transfer, the useful question is not "what is my limit" but "what are my four limits, on the channel I am about to use".

What to do when you need to send more

In rough order of preference:

  • Ask for a temporary increase. Many providers will raise a limit for a specific payment after identity checks, often the same day. It is the cheapest option and the least likely to trip anything.
  • Use CHAPS. No scheme maximum, same working day settlement, designed for high-value payments and standard for property completions. You pay a per-payment fee and you have to meet the day's cut-off.
  • Pay in branch or by phone. Limits on assisted channels are often higher than in the app, and the verification is done in person.
  • Split the payment across days. The worst option, and worth understanding why. A sequence of payments sitting just under a threshold is a recognised pattern in fraud and money laundering monitoring. Doing it for entirely innocent reasons can still trigger a review, hold the funds and cost you more time than raising the limit would have.

If you are paying a solicitor for a property completion, assume CHAPS and check the cut-off the day before. That is the single most common large payment where the deadline is immovable.

How this sits against the other rails

Briefly, because the full comparison is in UK payment rails compared:

  • Faster Payments. Seconds, usually free, scheme maximum £1 million, provider limits typically much lower.
  • CHAPS. Same working day, per-payment fee, no scheme maximum, cut-off times apply.
  • Bacs. Three working day cycle, very low cost, built for volume such as payroll and direct debits rather than for urgency.

The pattern is consistent: speed, cost and value ceilings trade against each other, and the right rail is the one whose constraint you can live with.

For businesses

Business limits are worth handling before you need them, not during.

  • Ask what your limits are across every channel and get the answer in writing, including the daily total.
  • Tell your provider about known large payments in advance. A supplier settlement, a completion or an acquisition payment is easier to clear before the day than while a deadline runs.
  • Check who can authorise what. Dual authorisation is a good control and a bad surprise when the second approver is on a plane.
  • Match the rail to the obligation. Regular high-volume payouts belong on a rail built for that rather than on repeated manual transfers bumping into ceilings, which is what treasury and payouts is for.

The underlying point is that a payment limit is a risk decision somebody made about your account, not a law of physics. It can usually be changed, but only by asking, and only in advance.

Sources

Scheme limit and its change date checked against Pay.UK on 6 August 2026. Provider limits are set individually and change without notice, so confirm yours with your own bank rather than relying on any published figure, including this one.

Put it to work

Frequently asked questions

The scheme maximum is £1 million per transaction. Pay.UK raised it from £250,000 on 10 February 2022. But banks are not required to offer the full amount, and Pay.UK says explicitly that any increase a provider makes to its own limit sits in the competitive space. Most consumer banking apps cap transfers far lower, so the limit that applies to you is your provider's.

Because the limit is a fraud control, not a technical constraint. Faster Payments are close to irreversible once sent, so a lower ceiling caps what can be lost in a single fraudulent or mistaken instruction. Limits also vary by how you initiate the payment: app, online banking, phone and branch frequently have different ceilings for the same account.

It depends on your provider and often on your account type, your channel and how long the payee has been set up. Most banks apply a per-transaction limit and a separate daily total, and some apply a per-payee limit on top. Check all three before planning a large payment, because hitting the daily total is what usually catches people out.

Four options in rough order of preference: ask your bank to raise the limit temporarily, which many will do after identity checks; use CHAPS, which has no scheme maximum and settles same day for a fee; make the payment in branch or by phone, where limits are often higher; or split it across days. Splitting is the worst option because a sequence of payments just under a threshold is a recognised fraud pattern and may trigger a review.

For genuinely large or time-critical transfers, usually. CHAPS has no scheme maximum, settles the same working day and is designed for high-value payments such as property completions. The trade-offs are a per-payment fee and same-day cut-off times, so it is not a like-for-like replacement for a free instant transfer.

Often, but not automatically. Business limits are typically set against what the account actually does, so an account with a history of large regular payments is usually reviewed differently from a new one. If your business needs headroom, it is a conversation with your provider rather than a setting you can change yourself.

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