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Why don't any of the TOC/ticket seller apps accept Google/Apple Pay?

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Bletchleyite

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One of the things I find really cack-handed about buying tickets online via an app is that you either seem to need to log in via your Paypal account or enter a card number. On a mobile device that's meant to have me choose it over using a TVM that's almightily slow and awkward.

Why do none of the apps seem to accept Google/Apple Pay with fingerprint verification, which would speed this up no end?
 
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sw1ller

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It’s the railway, I’m just glad we have the wheel, electricity and working toile....... oh wait
 

[.n]

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My Samsung phone (which also has Samsung Pay, rather than Google Pay) lets me autofill credit card details with fingerprint verification, so that's pretty quick
 

Hadders

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Eurostar accept Apple Pay.
 

Antman

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Because it would take years of testing. You wouldn’t understand how difficult it is on the railway. It has to work every time, without fail, or passengers will perish. The safety aspects. People expect it not to work. We’ve always done it that way. We know best. Fit in with us, or go use your alternative. You’re free to do so. It’s a choice. And millions choose us. So we’re doing it right....and we’re not prepared to listen to anyone else.
 

maniacmartin

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I’m guessing that with Apple Pay the app wouldn’t get access to your card number, so would need to set any TVM collections to be collectible by any card
 

AM9

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Because there are far more important things to be attended to before the latest payment option is cleared for use. There are more than enough choices to pay for rail travel without spending valuable revenue on yet another mechanism. What next, crypto-currency payyment? :)
 

tomwills98

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Because there are far more important things to be attended to before the latest payment option is cleared for use. There are more than enough choices to pay for rail travel without spending valuable revenue on yet another mechanism. What next, crypto-currency payyment? :)

Nah, we'll go full circle. A cow and two chickens for a monthly season ticket
 

Bletchleyite

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Because there are far more important things to be attended to before the latest payment option is cleared for use. There are more than enough choices to pay for rail travel without spending valuable revenue on yet another mechanism.

I think you totally missed my point.

I will only use a phone to purchase a walk-up ticket when it is quicker and more convenient to do so than to use the TVM. (None of the stations I regularly use have a shortage of ticketing facilities, so queueing is not generally an issue).

When you have to bother faffing about with logins and card numbers, it isn't. So the apps limit their market.
 

RLBH

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Nah, we'll go full circle. A cow and two chickens for a monthly season ticket
What madness is this? Mine is only three sheep and two ducks!

Acceptance of Google Pay/Apple Pay for online retail - and not just for rail tickets - is generally pretty poor. I think part of it is conservatism from retailers who don't want the risk of something new; part of it is an attitude that the retailer already has card and PayPal options, why should they need more; and in some cases it's the retailer trying to push their preferred payment option onto customers.
 

Edders23

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Because it would take years of testing. You wouldn’t understand how difficult it is on the railway. It has to work every time, without fail, or passengers will perish. The safety aspects. People expect it not to work. We’ve always done it that way. We know best. Fit in with us, or go use your alternative. You’re free to do so. It’s a choice. And millions choose us. So we’re doing it right....and we’re not prepared to listen to anyone else.


I invested the vast sum of £23.00 to acquire an izettle reader for my business which enables me to do applepay and contactless so somewhere along the line the railways bank is being awkward because they have the facility to process applepay
 

Bletchleyite

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I invested the vast sum of £23.00 to acquire an izettle reader for my business which enables me to do applepay and contactless so somewhere along the line the railways bank is being awkward because they have the facility to process applepay

That's a different type of Apple Pay - I'm talking about in-app Apple/Google Pay here.

Clearly it is possible as it seems some apps do support Apple Pay (but not Google Pay).
 

td97

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The present Arriva/Virgin app is ok. I have a debit card saved on the (Android) Northern app and only have to enter the last 3 digits for any purchase, which I know anyway.
I guess Google Pay wins from a security point of view as the retailer never sees your actual card details. But then you have issues with refunds/automatic delay repay.
 

Aictos

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The present Arriva/Virgin app is ok. I have a debit card saved on the (Android) Northern app and only have to enter the last 3 digits for any purchase, which I know anyway.
I guess Google Pay wins from a security point of view as the retailer never sees your actual card details. But then you have issues with refunds/automatic delay repay.

I don’t need to do that with the Arriva app, I just select Apple Pay as the payment then use my fingerprint to prove its me - job done!
 

infobleep

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Nah, we'll go full circle. A cow and two chickens for a monthly season ticket
That could bring a while new set of anomalies, where two chickens and a goat gets you further than three chickens and a horse. If you pay using a cow it restricts you to the next train that's moooving.

Then there would be the TVMs that only accept pigeons in a compolsary ticket area that says you must pay using sparrows....
 

talltim

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South West Trains put in a smart card reader system at their stations. Around the corner was a long wait until they were actually used.
So did EMT. I saw someone use one for the first time last week
 

Joe Paxton

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That's a different type of Apple Pay - I'm talking about in-app Apple/Google Pay here.

Clearly it is possible as it seems some apps do support Apple Pay (but not Google Pay).

What cut does Google take? And what broader information do they want to gather about the transaction too?
 

Bletchleyite

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What cut does Google take? And what broader information do they want to gather about the transaction too?

I don't know off the top of my head I'm afraid.

FWIW, I used the RingGo parking app today, that manages to remember your card details so typing them in once is not a faff. You used to have to enter the CVV each time but they have now stopped that.

I note someone upthread said Samsung devices will remember card details and insert into apps - stock Android won't do that (though Chrome probably will when Web browsing as it does on a PC).
 

kristiang85

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I must say I get annoyed with the Apple payers on the tube as their transactions seem to take 2s longer than any other form of ticket payment at the gates, and those 2s are precious in my life as a Londoner :D

I think the railways are just too big a netwrok to convert quickly - small business can change with tech almost overnight, but even on a franchised railways, there is still a common payment system across the whole country so most likely it just hasn't been a viable project for them yet.

Personally I'd prefer other systems be sorted first than this, when contactless cards are still by far the most used.
 
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