‘Card clash’ hits 2,000 Tube commuters a day

Fare: Oyster and bank cards may clash

14 August 2014

Thousands of passengers a day are experiencing “card clash” on the London Underground in which money is taken from the wrong payment card, according the results of a trial.

Some 2,000 people a day “touch in” with a bank or credit card even though they intended to pay by Oyster.

The fares were not charged to bank cards because the system will not be activated until next month but the readers have already been installed.

But from the September 16 launch, passengers risk being hit in the pocket if they pay with the wrong card as they could lose the benefit of the fare cap which means the daily fare is limited to £10.60 in zones 1-4 regardless of the number of journeys.

The alarm was raised in a briefing document to the mayor by Transport for London seen by the Standard.

As a result TfL has stepped up warnings at its stations with passengers on the Tube, London Overground and DLR all affected. To avoid “card clash”, passengers must avoid touching in or out at the readers with wallets containing both Oyster and other contactless payment cards. TfL said there was no chance of passengers being charged on two cards for one journeys.

The document read: “We are currently seeing about 2,000 instances per day of customers presenting a CPC (contactless payment card) in a way that, had the system been live, they would have been charged on it. As the system is not live yet we have to infer that their presentation of a CPC is unintentional.”

Passengers using national rail services within central London will be able to “tap in” using their bank or credit card from next month.

It was today confirmed that “contactless” payments will also be accepted on suburban services that are currently part of the Oyster charging network.For example, passengers will be able to pay by contactless for a journey from Victoria to Bexleyheath or Cheshunt to Liverpool Street.

The agreement between TfL and train operating companies comes just weeks after the passenger watchdog London TravelWatch warned that failure to include national rail would be confusing and unfair for passengers.

London TravelWatch Chief Executive, Janet Cooke said: “We’re really glad that TfL and train operators have worked together to ensure that all passengers who use services which currently accept Oyster PAYG will be able to benefit from this additional way to way. It will make it make it easier for visitors to London and people who have forgotten their Oyster cards. It will hopefully also prevent a repeat of the confusion that occurred when Oyster PAYG was first implemented.”

Contactless will extend to all national rail journeys within TfL zones 1-9 as well as journeys to Chafford Hundred, Grays, Ockendon, Purfleet, Watford Junction, Broxbourne, Brentwood and Shenfield. It will not be available on Heathrow Express or Southeastern high-speed services between St Pancras and Stratford.

TfL's director of customer experience, Shashi Verma, said: "Customers need to make sure they only present the card they want to pay with. We have been advising customers about how to avoid card clash for several months with in-station announcements, posters across the network, direct emails to customers and radio adverts. This will be intensified over the next month before contactless launches on the London transport network. When it launches, we do appreciate there could still be some instances of card clash and we will be working to identify these and provide automatic refunds. Customers are also able to contact us on our low rate number to get a refund."

‘Card clash’ hits 2,000 Tube commuters a day

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