Non-UK Contactless cards on TfL services

[Springs Branch]

Have any forum members living outside the UK had practical experience using non-UK Contactless cards on TfL buses or Tube?

Specifically I'd like to know whether a Visa PayWave branded debit card issued by an Australian bank is likely to work.

The TfL website says:

MasterCard
Nearly all MasterCard and Maestro contactless payment cards issued outside the UK are accepted.
The majority of cards that aren't accepted are issued in the USA, Canada and the Netherlands.
There are also a few other cards that may not be accepted. If your card is rejected on our services, please contact your card issuer.

VISA
Some Visa and V PAY contactless payment cards from countries other than the UK are not accepted for contactless travel on our services. Visa expects all its contactless payment cards to be accepted in the near future.

Speaking to my bank about using PayWave in UK, the lady said "Er, yeah, it should be OK", in a tone of voice which told me she was really saying "I've got NFI".


Somebody will probably say "just get an Oyster".
Well I already have one, but my companion who will be in London for one day doesn't, and depending on the weather and how our day pans out, we may end up doing just one bus or Tube trip. Or two. Or none at all. So it's very likely throwing away money getting Oystered-up, even allowing for a currency conversion fee on the CPC.
So much more convenient if we could hop on a bus with a handful of change!

 

[andrewkeith5]

Have any forum members living outside the UK had practical experience using non-UK Contactless cards on TfL buses or Tube?

Specifically I'd like to know whether a Visa PayWave branded debit card issued by an Australian bank is likely to work.

The TfL website says:

Speaking to my bank about using PayWave in UK, the lady said "Er, yeah, it should be OK", in a tone of voice which told me she was really saying "I've got NFI".


Somebody will probably say "just get an Oyster".
Well I already have one, but my companion who will be in London for one day doesn't, and depending on the weather and how our day pans out, we may end up doing just one bus or Tube trip. Or two. Or none at all. So it's very likely throwing away money getting Oystered-up, even allowing for a currency conversion fee on the CPC.
So much more convenient if we could hop on a bus with a handful of change!

So long as it is compatible with Contactless card readers in the UK (can't think why it wouldn't be) and your bank allows pre-authorisation on your card (as is done with hotels and car hire companies) I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't work.

Pre-authorisation is required, as TfL take an initial 10p pre-auth which is then corrected after end of service.

I would try your contactless card in a retailer if you can before travel (pretty much any coffee shop in any airport you arrive into will accept contactless). If it works give it a go on the bus/tube. The worst that can happen is that it doesn't work and you need to buy an Oyster card! Just make sure you try the Contactless card first before your Oyster...

This assumes your first journey will start somewhere close to where an alternative ticket could be purchased. If not I will get more creative!

 

[Tetchytyke]

As long as the card is compatible with Contactless card readers in the UK then it shouldn't be a problem. The missus regularly used an Irish CPC on London Buses and it worked fine.

 

[mattdickinson]

There are two types of contactless card:

i) magnetic strip equivalent (mainly issued in the USA)

and

ii) contactless EMV (mainly in Europe and Asia)

Only the second type is accepted by TfL.

More details in this article.

 

[andrewkeith5]

There are two types of contactless card:

i) magnetic strip equivalent (mainly issued in the USA)

and

ii) contactless EMV (mainly in Europe and Asia)

Only the second type is accepted by TfL.

More details in this article.

Are the USA still stubbornly refusing to adopt Chip & PIN after all this time!?

 

[Springs Branch]

Thanks for the comments.

The strategy will be to try out the CPC in a shop first (good excuse for her to shout me a sandwich or a coffee). If all OK, then should be confident the card will work on a bus.

If not OK, fall-back will be to use the Tube if necessary - where there are machines & hopefully an open ticket office which accept cash.
Although having just checked current Tube fares for a Z1 single paper ticket, we might as well buy an Oyster, add some minimal credit and use the "one more bus trip" facility if needed.

 

[Via Bank]

Are the USA still stubbornly refusing to adopt Chip & PIN after all this time!?

EMV is slowly rolling out with a transition by the end of this year or next, I think. (Mainly after several high-profile security breaches at various large retailers.)

On a related note, has anyone had any experience using Apple Pay (the NFC module on the new iPhones) on TfL/LU services? In theory, it should work fine, but I wonder if the EMV tokenisation it uses might screw up the capping/fare calculation (or, god forbid, if you were inspected en-route, it wouldn't show up.) I'd try it myself, but it's only available for US banks at the moment.

 

[andrewkeith5]

On a related note, has anyone had any experience using Apple Pay (the NFC module on the new iPhones) on TfL/LU services? In theory, it should work fine, but I wonder if the EMV tokenisation it uses might screw up the capping/fare calculation (or, god forbid, if you were inspected en-route, it wouldn't show up.) I'd try it myself, but it's only available for US banks at the moment.

Wouldn't that use the US version of Contactless?

I don't imagine it will be available here any time soon given how pathetically slow banks and operators are adopting (or rather, not adopting) the same technology in Android and Windows Phone!

 

[LesS]

Slightly different; but last year I was able to use a contactless card at a supermarket in Paris. As previous posts advise, try it at a shop first.

 

[paddington]

Yes, it should work; I've used an Australian contactless card on a London bus and UK contactless cards in Australia and Canada, where I managed to pay £50 (CAD $90 at the time) by contactless! (The UK limit is £20, but the limit in Australia is $100, and the Canadian limit is supposed to be $50, but based on this it seems to be the merchant rather than the card issuer which imposes this limit)

 

[Panda]

Note that the readers used by shops are different to those used by TfL, so there is a slight change that a card which works in a shop, doesn't work on a bus reader.

The limits do not apply in this way. The limits determine whether or not TfL needs to get further authorisation to charge your card or whether they can do it as an offline transaction.

 

[cool110]

...it seems to be the merchant rather than the card issuer which imposes this limit

It is the card issuer who set the limit, however each currency has a different limit and many banks leave many of them at the default of 999,999.99