TFL payment after card cancelled.

[londonbridge]

On Saturday it was discovered that my debit card details had been compromised and fraudulent transactions had been made from my account. The card was cancelled and a new one requested. Earlier on Saturday I had made a bus journey using contactless. Knowing a little about how Tfl operate contactles payments (in as much as they don't actually request any money until the overnight processing after your travel is completed), I was expecting an email saying they were blocking my card for travel because the fare had been declined. However the £1.50 has been successfully debited. My question is how were they able to take the money after the card was cancelled? The main purpose of this thread and question is to improve my understanding of how Tfl handle contactless, therefore mods please move this to GD if deemed appropriate.

 

[Clip]

because you made the journey before you cancelled your card. I believe its pretty instant update from buses now to the servers

 

[MikeWh]

because you made the journey before you cancelled your card. I believe its pretty instant update from buses now to the servers

Whilst the update from bus to server is instant, the debit from the server to the bank is still done overnight at the end of the day.

@londonbridge The card will have been approved for travel before you made the first journey. It's likely that the charge was accepted on this basis. Where you might have had a problem is if you tried to use the card after the bank had cancelled it. I had a similar issue to yours a few years ago and it worked out the same way.

 

[Clip]

wow still not instant? Are they moving towards realtime deductions at all?

 

[londonbridge]

Cheers Mike, I thought it might be something like that. Luckily I've still got an Oyster card (which I no longer use since contactless was extended to all tfl services) which I can use until my new bank card arrives.

 

[MikeWh]

wow still not instant? Are they moving towards realtime deductions at all?

No. The contactless model is to charge a single amount at the end of the day* once they know exactly what journeys have been made and which combination of cap and extension fares is the cheapest.

*for the pedants, travel after midnight may get charged as an additional amount because the payment run happens before the end of the Oyster day at 0430. The overall charge will be correct though.

 

[Clip]

Ahh fair enough.