AlterEgo
Veteran Member
Then the rail industry is wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds enabling this system, and not using it. What a total waste of money, Also the banks will be livid as it is a compulsory ID check for them, expect the banks to start claiming all transactions back that haven't been ID checked properly by card once they find out the rail companies are not doing it correctly. Or it could be that they are. You will be amazed at the information held on on your bank card!
It's been the case since TVMs were installed way, way back. There really is no problem. When you present your card into a TVM, and the collection is set to payment card only, it isn't an ID check as such - just checking the card is the same one as the one that's on the booking.
A TVM *cannot* reconcile the name on the card to the named traveller, only check whether the card is the same one used to make the booking.
There would be lots of problems with this. For reasons of character restriction, the name on my bank card is in the format "MR ALTEREGO A SURNAME" yet my full name is "ALTEREGO ANOTHER-SURNAME".
The banks are fully aware of the mechanics of any card collection and the risk is to the TOC and not the bank.
In the large majority of cases you must use the payment card. A significant minority of transactions (some booking sites, some travel agencies, some "trusted purchasers") are set to any card collection, a decision made individually by the retailer.