U.K. and Ireland - Do London cabs accept Credit cards?

Subject pretty much sums it up: A standard black cab hailed at the airport, do they accept credit cards?

Subject pretty much sums it up: A standard black cab hailed at the airport, do they accept credit cards?

I think I noticed signs in some of the cabs I've gotten at Paddington re: accepting c.c's, but I think I remember there was a pretty hefty service charge put on to do it & w/ the exchange rate - ouch.

Heathrow Express to Paddington accepts cc's, and then you could catch a cab from there to wherever you're going.

Cheers. Sharon

Some do, some don't. The only way to guarantee a credit card capable cab (great alliteration!) is to use one of the phone booking services. I'm not sure they include LHR in their service.

And as Sharon says, you do get thumped with a whopping service charge. It would cheaper to use your card to cash from an ATM at Heathrow.

Some cabs do, some don't. It's up to the owner-operator to decide (they may associate with a company that provides the set-up for it, for example).

If you do want one, you need to tell the dispatcher at Heathrow, and tell the driver you want to pay by card before you start the journey.

Last time I did this, the surcharge was £3. This can vary.

Every cab can stop by convenient cash machine so you can withdraw money from your US debit card. The drivers know where such machines are located, so you don't waste time after checking in the hotel.
Anotherr thing is that preordering a cab (there are number of possibilities, not neecessarily "minicab" - 7seaters Ad(d)isson Lee? fleet is the most famous company) means that somebody will wait for you, get your luggage, excort you to a car and bring you safe to your hotel for fraction of your black cab fare.

The black cabs that do take credit cards generally have Mastercharge/Visa/Amex decals down the side, so you can hail one on the street, or be certain at the airport, if you see this. It's not all but it's quite a proportion.

It's a nuisance way to pay this way though because the technology depends on a mobile phone auto-connection from the credit card machine in the cab to the verification centre and it always seems to take ages for this all to happen. The surcharge sort of compensates for this.

BTW, London cabs have all sorts of ownership. Traditionally they were owned by their drivers who worked independently and drove home at the end of the day. Some are shared between two drivers. Some don't own them but hire them either by the day or on longer term arrangements. Some have radio dispatch or belong to the various booking companies like Computer Cab, which is like an association they belong to rather than ownership in many cases. It tends to be the independents who have no radio and no CC facility.

On my trip to London last week, I took a cab from Holborn to the City Airport. The meter read 23 pounds when I got there, and I had the cabbie round it up to 25 pounds. That's what I signed the receipt for and that's what the credit card company charged. So I don't know about any surcharge I paid unless he plugged it into the meter before leaving?

He also didn't 'radio' in my card number. I simply signed a sales slip like we used to in the old days before the machine card swipe.

It's possible it was added to the flag fall if you asked for it beforehand.

Sounds like you used an independent cabbie, though. It's pretty rare (in my experience) for companies to be given clearance to accept manual CC transactions except in the case of outages, these days.

You know, no merchant is supposed to charge a fee for credit card usage--for any card or the other. They can give a discount for using cash, but they cannot advertise it as "credit card use surcharge GBP3" This is global thing and in the agreement merchants sign. They of course put on the surcharge for thier transaction charges given to the bank and credit card company. Hope this helps.

NYC is adding credit card use in cabs too, but for some reason I feel bad using it because thet cabbies like to see cash at the end of the day. But watch out for those fake London Cabs.

You know, no merchant is supposed to charge a fee for credit card usage--for any card or the other. They can give a discount for using cash, but they cannot advertise it as "credit card use surcharge GBP3" This is global thing and in the agreement merchants sign.They can do so in the UK - it's the law. The merchant agreements have changed. And you will now see express surcharges for using credit cards.

Another plug for Zingo. 08700 700 700. Black cabs, all of which take plastic.

I took a cab from Victoria station to my hotel. When we got to the hotel, the cab driver won't take credit card as I didn't tell him before we arrived that I wish to pay with CR. He gave me a pretty good exchange rate for the US dollars. But, I didn't have the right amount and he doesn't have change. So, the hotel bell man pay for the cab and I went to the ATM down the street to get some cash and paid him back after I check in and got settled. So, apparently, you have to tell the cab driver how you want to pay when you get on the cab even though, there is a little sign says that they take credit card payment, they sometimes just don't! After that taxi experience, I took the tube every where. London tube is the best. We even tube it to waterloo station from we left London for Paris. Easy and no hassle. Great access when you have bags to carry.

When we got to the hotel, the cab driver won't take credit card as I didn't tell him before we arrived that I wish to pay with CR. ... So, apparently, you have to tell the cab driver how you want to pay when you get on the cab even though, there is a little sign says that they take credit card payment, they sometimes just don't!It's easy to get caught out by this. Those who take credit cards will have a sign on partition saying please tell the driver at the start of your journey that you want to pay by credit card.

I don't know the reason why they ask you to do this, as I've never (yet) actually paid a cabbie by credit card, but I have looked at that sign more times than I've had hot dinners.