Are we going to talk about the fact that they left out an NFC API for iOS9?
So much for my dreams of ditching my Oyster card for good.
So much for my dreams of ditching my Oyster card for good.
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iPhone The Near-Field Elephant In The Room
- Thread starter ConnYoungy
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Contactless TFL payments aren't the same as oyster though, it costs more than oyster and you can't use >Month travel cards by contactless payments
my understanding was that it was the same rate as oyster PLUS you get a weekly cap (so no need for a 7 day pass), but you are right about monthly passes.
I'm surprised that they've not done something about this already. Since TfL is moving to scrap cash payments, I'm expecting them to delve deeper into alternates, which Apple Pay is obviously the start of.
I've been surprised that Oyster hasn't spread out of London more though. I live near Reading, we don't have it, but the barriers have the pad for it, what a waste! Also, I have nightmare using the ticket barriers, so often the tickets stop working and I need to get them to reprint my monthly pass.
It's true that you can't use monthly passes on a contactless card; apart from that, contactless and oyster now cost the same, as long as you use the same card every time.
So really it's only a solution for tourists, anyone that lives in the City and regularly travels will buy monthly or longer travel cards because they're cheaper
I assume you have travel cards on your oyster though no? Unless you only travel a couple of days a week
I travel most days and use Oyster PAYG, but I live on Zone 1/2 borders and most of my journeys are by bus. I need to make 22 bus journeys in a week for a travelcard to make sense.
I use the bus everyday, but, yes, as for the underground and overground I travel about 2 times a week.
They have, they support contactless and Apple Pay. TfL are more likely to bring out monthly caps for contactless at the value of a monthly travelcard. Their long term goal is to go completely cashless and it seems they'd prefer to just support contactless technologies in the long run rather than have Oyster cards acting as a middle-man.
Not true - I use the overground most days for work, zones 1-3, but the savings for a monthly card are only worth it if I use it more than five days a week, which is not every week. PAYG is the better option for me. Lots of Londoners use weekly or PAYG, the savings aren't huge for monthly over weekly.
If using Apple Pay vs Oyster takes even a second longer to register through the barriers than that's a massive problem for TfL. Think of it at stations like Victoria and the massive people jam it would create. Of course what it has working in it's favour is that not many people will be using Apple Pay.
And I feel those who do use Apple Pay will tap in/out with their Watches rather than their 'Phones?