Family London travel

MilesT6060842

simongregson said:

Our kids have had contactless cards since they had pocket money, so they just use those. 

I think you presenting a solution from a perspective of expertise and privilege, not inclusiveness. 
(Including your "20 contactless cards" from a previous response which I think is very much an outlier to the norm).

It's a good discussion to have about equipping children with contactless payment cards as a potential solution for transport (although one that needs some pre-planning), to raise awareness of that as a solution.  Although you won't get a child or railcard discount on that, vs. paper rail travelcard.  (and to be helpful you could have chipped in with that specific detail earlier in the discussion)

• What is the setup cost and lead time for a child's contactless card?
• Do you need to have a minimum credit balance on the card to make the gates work (I think you do)

As and when the UK has an inclusive solution of full rollout of basic bank accounts with contactless cards and TfL has worked out how to offer discounts linked to contactless cards, then they Oyster could go.  I will be interested to see how long the Netherlands takes to remove their national contactless travel card.

simongregson

I think you are confusing the two people who have responded.

I am just replying to the original post, based on how we get around London if we visit. We do sometimes use the oyster card we already have, but it's only worth it if we are going to arrive via train at a station where we can activate the discount - and always a nightmare as the queues to use a machine are long and the wait for a member of staff even longer! I did make it clear it is the less hassle approach for a small number of journeys.

One of our kids doesn't pay as they are under 11 and the other got a bank account which comes with a debit card, this wasn't specifically to go to London so it really didn't require any extra set up time for us, it would if they didn't have one but I think it is good training for managing money. There was no charge - loads of options from high street banks.

TfL don't charge cards until the end of the day - they will do an authorisation for 10p the first time it is used, although your card would be blocked if the payment failed at the end of the day. 

I agree there needs to be a solution to adding discounts to contactless bank cards, it's technically feasible as the card is charged by TfL's systems centrally so if you set up an account they could set it up to debit different amounts once proof of entitlement was provided. I suspect they won't bother unless forced though, because kids/OAP/disabled people in London have their own passes on Oyster. Ultimately paper tickets are on the way out, but I don't think it will be a priority to replace travelcards.

Username03725

Worth noting that occasionally tapping by card fails, which means you have to either use another card (if you have one) or find a station staff person to get you through.

Happened twice to us on our last trip, first when my wife's card beeped but didn't open the gates and then when I dobbed my phone (for the third time that trip) and this time got a Computer Says No response. Others may know better but it seemed to me that once a card payment has failed it's not going to work. Had to borrow another card to tap in and then out later to complete the journey.