Contactless rejected on London bus

Herbalus

Haven't seen this on the forums (I did a rudimentary search), so wonder how common it is. Last week in Dagenham, I boarded a bus to be reminded that they'd stopped taking cash. I live in the south west and hadn't been to the capital for a few months. I pulled out a contactless Cap One credit card, but this was rejected.

My friend also had his Natwest contactless debit card rejected. The driver asked if we had alternative cards, which we didn't, so we had to get off the bus. Is this common?

I normally take an oyster card with me to London, but forgot it this time. It'd be worrying if contactless cards are being rejected. I suspect it could be a recurrence of the online/offline card problem.

yorkie2

Its an offline transaction. Had you done other offline transactions previously?


There is a limit to the number that can be done with any card , at which point it will be rejected until an online transaction takes place.

Herbalus

Yes, I use the contactless feature more often than not, and I was under the impression that contactless was always offline. It definitely wasn't more than 6 times since I last used the PIN though.

yorkie2

You may want to ask your bank what the limit is.


(or if you don't mind posting it here, we may be able to find out)

Herbalus

The limit for what? I thought the contactless feature required resetting by using a PIN every 6 or so transactions. But that poses another question - when contactless cards are used for tube, I can imagine people using their card just for that over several days, which would block it.

Card was the luma reward card that pays 4% at supermarkets. Credit limit is £1000, of which I use £200 every month.

katejo

Personally I wouldn't want to use my Contactless card on public transport and hope that the Oystercard will not be phased out. I have an annual season ticket on my Oystercard which I carry in my pocket (in a wallet) most of the time. I would be very reluctant to carry a bank card in my pocket so would need to keep stopping to get the card out.
I am not sure how many times you can use the contactless card before being asked for the PIN again but i haven't yet been blocked.

sniggings

I thought is was only 3 times a day to a value of £20 you could use it?

anyway, clearly contactless is only for one offs, it's not meant as a replacement for the Oyster card.

wealdroam

sniggings wrote: »

anyway, clearly contactless is only for one offs, it's not meant as a replacement for the Oyster card.

I'm not sure where you got that idea from.

TfL seem to think it's not just for one offs:

Is contactless for me?

If you currently buy a 7 Day Travelcard on a Monday, using a contactless payment card will be a convenient alternative. When contactless payment cards are accepted on rail services, if you use the same card to pay for all your journeys all week until Sunday, your fares will be capped at the price of an equivalent 7 Day Travelcard.

Annisele

Herbalus wrote: »

I thought the contactless feature required resetting by using a PIN every 6 or so transactions.

That's definitely not the case for me. I use my contactless card a lot (since I got it I've pretty much stopped using cash), and I've done far more than 6 transactions in a row without using my PIN.

When I first got the card, it asked for my PIN all the time. Now, I'm hardly ever asked for my PIN when I use my card in my local Tesco, the staff canteen, or the Pret outside my office - and those three probably make up 90% of my contactless transactions. I'm pretty much always asked for my PIN if I use it in a new place.

I guess its algorithm must be more sophisticated than just "every 6th transaction", but I don't know what it is. That's probably for the best - I wouldn't want fraudsters knowing the algorithm either.

surreysaver

You would have thought that if buses could offer no other way of paying if your card wanted a PIN, then they would have to take it without a PIN?

Herbalus

surreysaver wrote: »

You would have thought that if buses could offer no other way of paying if your card wanted a PIN, then they would have to take it without a PIN?

The alternative, of course, is to kick you off the bus like I was. If that card wants PIN confirmation and the buses don't offer it, then there's not much else the bus can do - it won't override the cards security.

There'd be a right kafuffle if the technology to override security features was so readily available that every bus could have it.