Contactless Payment on Merseyrail (Liverpool area)

Thanks for the info.
Wife and I will be going from Moorfield Station to Liverpool South Parkway which is our meeting point for the National Trust Beatles Childhood Homes tour. And then return

We have National Rail Senior Cards, so are you saying the National Rail discount applies to Merseyrail tickets? And if so, I guess we should just buy return tickets from a ticket agent at Moorfield to get the senior discount?

I know this seem elementary, but since we've never done it, everything is new to us.

Thanks for the info in advance.

Correct, just buy from either the agent, or Moorfields has ticket machines, as does Central and Lime Street.

Note that other faster long distance trains to South Parkway leave from Liverpool Lime Street High Level.
It depends where your hotel is as to whether Moorfields, Central (also on the Merseyrail route) or Lime Street is your best station.

With a railcard it is £3.20 return from any of the three stations.

When buying a ticket from a machine, is there a box to tick that says you have a Railcard?

Yes,

At least on Northern's machines they actually prompt you - do you want to add a railcard?. Also, again on Northern's machines (because they are the ones I'm most familiar with) they then also prompt you whether you want to add plus bus to your booking. I could swear my local machine winks at me at that prompt as if to say, of course you do. Plus bus also gets a railcard discount. So Liverpool plus bus (unlimited buses for the day in Liverpool) is £2.75 with railcard and a rail ticket from outside the plus bus zone to Liverpool. Greater Manchester is £3.25 for the day.

Northern and Avanti machines will also issue local rover and ranger tickets like the Merseyrail Day Saver and Saveaway. So I buy my Saveaway in Cumbria in the morning to save time in Liverpool. Northern will actually issue any rover/ranger in the UK on their machines. So I bought a Severn and Solent Rover in Cumbria recently- which saved time (and money) when changing trains at Newport (Gwent), much later that day.

I have a question about this. if travelling from Chester to Ellesmere Port and return, is contactless payment accepted?

No it isn't, there are big posters up at the gateline at Chester station about the non functionality of contactless there.
You need a ticket - be it physical or an on line ticket.
You can from Liverpool to Ellesmere Port, but not from Chester.

As an aside don't buy tickets from a TfW machine anywhere in North Wales, as they only sell the most expensive tickets for a journey.
One day this week I ended my day at Rhyl rather than starting it there and was surprised not to be offered a walk up Advance back to the English border at Shotton, but assumed they were sold out unusually. On!y later did I find out they weren't. I paid twice as much as I should.
The day I went to Bangor I used an Advance Flex Return from Chester (a walk up fare, where you specify the outward train but can use any return train). I bought that at Warrington on the Avanti machines once I knew I was on time into the area. I checked at Bangor and couldn't have bought it there (other than on line of course). The offered fare was twice as much.
So in north Wales buy from the Clerk, or on line if no Clerk is there. At Rhyl I had a 5 minute connection from the Traws Cymru bus into train so had to make a quick decision.

There is even a button which says "choose cheapest fare". What if means is cheapest fare I sell!!

I also checked the machines at Llandudno Junction, same story.

A case of once bitten, twice shy. Now I know.

Thanks, Stuart. That is all very helpful detail. Now.. to remember the detail when I get there.