French domestic card payments network Cartes Bancaires (CB) has begun the rollout of Sans Contact Plus, a new service that lets consumers make contactless card payments for amounts over the standard €50(US$54.06) transaction limit by entering their PIN at the point-of-sale.

To use the service, the merchant enters the transaction amount in the usual way and the customer then taps their contactless card to the merchant’s payment terminal. If the amount is over €50, they will then be prompted to enter their PIN so that the transaction can then be authorized.

“In this new configuration, the PIN code is verified online, directly by the customer’s bank and in real time, in a secure manner,” CB says.