Has anyone used a US issued credit card with the wireless symbol for payment on the tube in London? In looking at the website, it appears that as long as your credit card has the wireless symbol you should be able to touch it to the yellow area of the turnstile and have it deduct the amount from your card. Wondering if this works for US issued cards or just European CC. I happen to have one credit card with the symbol and was wondering if I could travel the tube without buying an Oyster card.
Posted by
Royaume-Uni nul points, pas plus
2515 posts
Quite possibly it will work but bear in mind you may also incur a foreign transaction charge.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32898 posts
But only one each day as all the day's travel is calculated at the end of the day and lumped together, taking account of daily caps. If it is used all week it works out the weekly caps too.
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9101 posts
Last year I was able to use my Chase Mastercard paypass debit card successfully on the London metro system, it worked flawlessly. In fact as an experiment I tested all three RFID payment choices the system offers: Oyster card, RFID credit/debit card, Apple Pay via an Iphone. All worked as advertised, the oyster and debit cards were the most convenient...just tap and go. Apple Pay was a bit of pain as you have to authorize the phone with your fingerprint before you can tap, not fun in a crowded subway station:(
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4053 posts
Michael: How much was the foreign transaction fee charged by your card, if any? Was it calculated per tap or per day? Is it better than purchasing an Oyster, which would be one transaction at one fee from your financial institution? (Or none, if the Oyster is purchased with cash.)
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9101 posts
The FTF was 3% per use on two different days. I only used the debit card twice just to test it out so I don't how it would it be handled if I used it enough to qualify for the day pass. I already had an oyster card from a previous trip that had funds in it so I was eager to use it up.
Shortly after the returning home Chase mailed me a new chip&signature debit card that didn't include the RFID chip. So I have lost the ability to use it on the subway again:(
On future trips I will stick to the Oyster card.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Luckily mine will be a credit card without a foreign transaction fee, so I'm going to try it.
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9101 posts
Rose,
Be it an Oyster or contactless credit card, one doesn't need to physically hold the card to use it. It works via radio waves so all you need to do is put it in a side pocket of a purse/cross body bag or leave it inside a wallet and hold that to the reader for the barriers to open.
Contactless cards also work with most of merchants in the UK, large and small. Even venders at the streets markets had readers that would accept RFID...very convenient.
Posted by
London, England.
661 posts
If you have more than one contactless card, be sure to only touch one of them on the reader at once. Sometimes a hazard if not removing the card from your wallet.