TechGreatest
Londoners! Ditch Oyster Card & Save Money: Contactless Payments Explained
After trailing contactless payments on buses, TFL has confirmed the service will be coming to the London Underground, DLR, and Overground
The Oyster Card was a great invention and one that saves millions of people hours of time a year. With an Oyster Card at your disposal, you no longer had to queue for a ticket or pass. Just tap on the gates or terminal and you’re away. Simples.
Well, later on this year, travel is going to get even simpler in the UK’s capital. TFL has now confirmed that contactless payments (the ability to pay by tapping a phone or a bank card) will be coming to the London Underground, DLR and the Overground later on this year.
Contactless Payments will hit the Tube, Overground, DLR and Trams on September 16. And the best part is that fares will be capped, meaning Londoners could save a packet adopting the new payment method. “National Rail journeys will be included in the system but an agreement may not be ready for launch,” reports Expert Reviews.
Bye, Bye Oyster. Hello, Cheaper Fares!
With Oyster Cards, when you top up the data – or monies – it’s stored directly on the card, which is why it’s so upsetting when you lose a brand new Oyster with £50 on it. With contactless payments via phones and bankcards, however, the payment system (“back office”) is entirely different, sort of like an instant debit, and this allows TFL to launch cheaper fares and also ensure punters never pay over the odds for their journey.
“TFL said it expects the move will save it up to £80m in the next five years by reducing payments to the firm providing Oyster cards, reports The Guardian, “though it has no plans to phase the method out”.
Contactless payments have been up and running on London’s buses for a couple of years now. You get on, tap your bankcard or phone on the Oyster thing and it deducts the fare direct from your account.
TFL says all bankcards issued this year will support contactless payment (even foreign cards), but advises users not to carry two contactless cards in one wallet as they can interfere with one another, the so-called “card clash”.
London’s Underground and wider rail network goes contactless on September 16