TFL contactless payments

force_ten

does anybody use the TFL contactless payments system?

the reason i ask is i visit London about 4 -6 times a year and looked at the pay as you go oyster cards but didn't fancy paying for the card and then having unused credit on it for months at a time

I just wondered what real life experience you had of the TFL contactless payments system

dzug1

Well I've used it on just one day (infrequent visitor like you) and all appears to have gone smoothly.


Put the card on the Oyster reader, it beeps and the gates open. It charged the right amount for the (uncomplicated) journeys

giraffe69

Also used it for one journey and completely trouble free. When my Oyster credit runs out I'll use it all the time.

force_ten

I have registered my card and will give it a go at the end of the month on a three day two night visit, and i will be using the tube and DLR on all three days

PBA

Worked fine the only time I've tried it. I had some trepidation because the Oyster cards always scan instantly whereas using contactless cards in shops can take a few tries to make it work. But my contactless Santander 123 worked fine on the tube.

techno12

Used it for the past couple of days and it worked fine, tapping in and out as usual. It doesn't show you the fare when you exit however, as the system works slightly differently to Oyster in that the 'grand total' for the day's travel is only calculated and charged at the end of the day. I also used it on the pink validators as well to avoid being charged for zone 1 and the correct fare was applied when I checked online later.

I registered the card so that I could see the journey history. You don't have to do that though. Ditched Oyster a while back as I too only make the occasional trip to London.

A "revenue protection" dude appeared on one of the journeys and just touched the card against his reader. No probs... Oyster soon to be obsolete for Pay As You Go I reckon.

username

I've had no problems with using contactless payments, have used it since they started accepting it on buses for single journeys. You can also view all of your journeys and charge history online.

jbuchanangb

I am sticking to Oyster. My preferred debit/credit cards are not contactless, and as I have a Senior Railcard registered on my Oyster, I would lose out on the discount if I used contactless.

benjus

I'd go for contactless if I didn't use a Travelcard - contactless can be cheaper than Oyster PAYG, but AFAIK not vice-versa.

zaax

I didn't think they could be used on buses.

benjus

zaax wrote: »

I didn't think they could be used on buses.

It's been available on buses for a while - it's the rollout to the rest of the system that's more recent.