layz

[Posting here as it might be useful to holders of the BA Amex visiting London as well as visitors to London from overseas - probably best to move to the UK forum after people have had a chance to read it]

Today is the day when TFL officially expanded acceptance of contactless payment cards to tube, DLR, Overground and other London Rail services in addition to buses where contactless has been accepted for a while.

I've been part of the pilot for a few months and so have been able to use my Amex on the tube for a while, and it's generally worked well. Price capping applies both per day and for a rolling Monday - Sunday week, this means you never pay more than what it would cost to have a daily or weekly travelcard.

This is ideal for visitors for London (see here for acceptance details for non-UK cards), if you have an appropriate card then you don't need to queue for tickets or top up your Oyster card. If you don't have a compatible card just continue to use Oyster for the moment.

Registration is optional, although I recommend it as it allows you to keep track of your journeys and if there's an issue you can get it rectified. You can register here.

I think the only mode of transport that accepts Oyster and not contactless is the old Routemaster heritage routes. So if you're a tourist and want to ride these old buses then you'd be better off with Oyster as it is treated like a normal bus for fare purposes.

Contactless works well for me as I'm not in London all the time so getting an annual or monthly season ticket would be a waste and it's nice to have one less card to carry about.

Cap'n Benj

Can you tap more than once for multiple pax?

I can see carnage happening when families need to use public transport and the 15 year old has no card

paul4040

No. You tap the card - the gate opens, and then you need to go through them. If you tap multiple times the gate will still only open for one "pass".

There are still plenty of options for people without contactless cards to use the Tube. I for one will need to keep using Oyster, as I am entitled to a discount on the Tube (which obviously won't be contained on my bank card).

jerry a. laska

http://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments...actless-for-me

layz

You can't, it'd cause too much confusion as you need to tap out the other end, plus it'd take ages going through barriers and passing the card back.

There's two solutions to the person with no card:

- The use an Oyster card like they would have had to do previously.
- If one of the parents has multiple cards give it to the 15 year old (that said do they still do child fares? if so it might be cheaper for them to get an Oyster).

Roger

This page from that link is worth a read: http://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments...on-this-page-1

A couple of surprises:
I knew there had been an issue with US AmEx cards regarding chip-and-PIN cards. I wonder how many US AmEx cards are contactless?

(my bolding)
This one really surprised me. I had no idea that some North Americans and the Dutch would have difficulty using contactless MCs.

lhrsfo

I got quite excited about this until I realised that it will be more inconvenient for me to use a cc. I keep my Oyster separate from my wallet, whereas all my cards are in my wallet. I can't simply "touch" my wallet as I would have no control over which card is read. So I would have to take the card out of my wallet. It will just be easier to continue to use the Oyster Card.

:D!

The reason for one card per traveller is because of the daily cap, not because it would be too confusing. However, you are permitted to share Oysters and thus take advantage of the daily caps if not more than one person is travelling at any one time. (With bank cards it would probably be against the bank's T&Cs)

Not everybody's week runs from Monday to Sunday, so this weekly capping is a step backward for some people. My week does run from Monday to Sunday, but the zones I require do not.

It may now be possible for people to share weekly caps without needing to physically pass the Oyster around, if one person is a supplementary cardholder from an issuer who issues supplementary cards with the same card number!


Child fares are still offered (and are sometimes £0.00 e.g. on buses) but these require ordering an Oyster photocard online or at the post office in advance - significantly in advance for people outside the UK.

RichardInSF

Did I read in the initial post that weekly capping works as well as daily? What about for Oyster cards? I can't find this on the TfL site.

britenbsas

Yes, weekly (Mon-Sun) capping for contactless cards. This is not yet a feature of Oyster PAYG but will be introduced at some point next year I believe

CX HK

Agreed. So now if I want to continue using my Oyster card I'll have to take it out, or risk having it randomly reading different cards?

EDIT: I suppose there will be different card readers

rcspeirs

I'm told (and I confess - I don't understand the details) that there are two variants on contactless bank cards. All the UK card issuers use one standard, so any UK issued card will work. But some issued overseas will not work with the tfl system - and apparently most likely if the card was issued in N America or Netherlands. If anyone understands the whys/wherefores on that, it would be interesting to hear.

stut

Nope, same card readers. There have been all sorts of warnings from TfL on CARD CLASH (making it sound far more dramatic than it actually is). However, if you register your Oyster and contactless card to the same account online, they will do their best to reconcile journey where you touch in and out on different cards by accident (although how this affects the weekly cap, I don't know).

lhrsfo

I think that's the issue. One trip, it picks up your Oyster. The next trip it (perhaps because you moved the cards in your wallet) it picks up your Amex. The next trip it picks up your Visa Debit. It may well try to reconcile your touches in and out (or you can subsequently) but the daily or weekly price cap simply won't work. I think that the onus will be on the user to ensure that the same card is picked up each time.

measures

Having stood on the platform in pouring rain, trying to buy a ticket in Netherlands, when I had no change, I can well believe their system is incompatible. The machine wouldn't accept the card being inserted in the machine, not to even consider contactless.