pay by NFC

[DJL]

Does anyone know if/when it will be possible to pay using NFC on a mobile phone on national rail in the London (i.e. current oyster) area or beyond?

I've traditionally always had an annual ticket but now that I will only be travelling some days it makes more sense to use payg. But the oyster prepay limit of £90 isn't going to last long on NR.

The downside to this approach of course is that I'll have to pay extra if I re-route and grab a tube or bus

 

[andrewkeith5]

At the current rate of smartcard progression contactless cards might be routine on TfL reasonably soon but I very, very, very much doubt that National Rail will be anywhere close to thinking about it for years yet.

Even then, NFC payment on mobile phones is nowhere near being rolled out properly - the phone manufacturers are ready, but the banks are still running on hopelessly old technology and for most cases you need the mobile operators support to get a Secure SIM module to hold the payment details...which, surprise surprise, no operator offers...

You are best off getting an Oyster card and setting it up to Auto Top-Up- by the sounds of what you're saying, £40 auto top up once the balance dips below £10 would be good for you.

 

[Haywain]

It would probably be best not to hold your breath for NFC to be a payment method.

Using Oyster PAYG, the £90 limit won't be a problem if you set up and auto top-up, but if you are worried that £90 won't last long you probably need to be looking at buying Travelcards in one form or another.

 

[MikeWh]

The maximum anytime cap on Oyster is £26.20 at the moment and involves travelling to or from Shenfield to require it. The £90 limit will therefore last at least 3 days. If you make that journey 4 or more days in a week then the £93.60 weekly travelcard will be better value.

I echo the suggestions to set up auto top-up and if you really are using it that much, £40 a time is the way to go.

Having said all that, TfL are starting a contactless trial in early 2014 and that will include all rail services currently covered by the Oyster system.