Used the tube but was unable to tap out

[helana77]

Hello,

On Saturday 5th March I tapped in at Brixton tube station with my bank card, however when I came to tap out it wouldn't let me through and said to seek assistance. I sought assistance and the lady attempted to tap me out with my card but couldn't do it and so she let me out with her card. She said to contact my bank as it will charge me the maximum fare. My questions are:
1. Can I be pursued for this from the tube company for any prosecutions or offences?
2. Should I contact my bank about this?

 

[Ken H]

Hello,

On Saturday 5th March I tapped in at Brixton tube station with my bank card, however when I came to tap out it wouldn't let me through and said to seek assistance. I sought assistance and the lady attempted to tap me out with my card but couldn't do it and so she let me out with her card. She said to contact my bank as it will charge me the maximum fare. My questions are:
1. Can I be pursued for this from the tube company for any prosecutions or offences?
2. Should I contact my bank about this?

check what your card was charged online or by phone. See if it charged you the max fare. If so take it up with TfL. If they wont play ball, do a chargeback.

have you used your card since? Not online but chip and pin somewhere. If it worked it was TfL's problem. If not you perhaps need a new card.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

In response to your questions

1. Highly unlikely. As I understand it, whenever anyone touches a card in it is charged a maximum fare. On touching out it refunds the difference between the maximum fare and the fare for the journey taken. You might be able to contact TfL's helpdesk and get them to remedy the journey price for you.
2. Yes, sounds as if your card has broken and requires replacement.

 

[Hadders]

The system might automatically complete the journey for uoi based on your journey history. In the event you are charged a maximum fare then contact the TfL helpdesk and they will be able to add the missing tap for you and arrange a refund of the difference between the maximum fare and actual fare.

 

[Ridercross]

I would say:

1) Contact TfL to advise what happened ASAP just to show that you were willing to pay the correct fares.
2) Is this the common problem of a number of consecutive contactless transactions, so for security reasons it needs you to make a PIN transaction. Try putting your PIN in at a cash machine, if it works then there is nothing wrong with the card. You don't even need to make a transaction, just put your PIN in and then if it works get your card out again.

 

[Ken H]

I would say:

1) Contact TfL to advise what happened ASAP just to show that you were willing to pay the correct fares.
2) Is this the common problem of a number of consecutive contactless transactions, so for security reasons it needs you to make a PIN transaction. Try putting your PIN in at a cash machine, if it works then there is nothing wrong with the card. You don't even need to make a transaction, just put your PIN in and then if it works get your card out again.

Just ask for your balance at the ATM Thats enough to reset the card for contactless.

 

[swt_passenger]

In response to your questions

1. Highly unlikely. As I understand it, whenever anyone touches a card in it is charged a maximum fare. On touching out it refunds the difference between the maximum fare and the fare for the journey taken...

Contactless doesn’t work in quite the same way as ordinary Oyster PAYG. With contactless the “system” records the in and out events but only calculates the fares, (or capping), to charge to the account overnight.

Just ask for your balance at the ATM Thats enough to reset the card for contactless.

AIUI from previous discussions, transit mode, (ie contactless travel), transactions are supposed to be outside of the process that requires the PIN periodically.

 

[datdad]

Hello,

On Saturday 5th March I tapped in at Brixton tube station with my bank card, however when I came to tap out it wouldn't let me through and said to seek assistance. I sought assistance and the lady attempted to tap me out with my card but couldn't do it and so she let me out with her card. She said to contact my bank as it will charge me the maximum fare. My questions are:
1. Can I be pursued for this from the tube company for any prosecutions or offences?
2. Should I contact my bank about this?

Hi there, the advice above is great. In my one experience of this I waited for a day to see what turned up on my bank account online (having used my bank card to tap in I couldn't find the place to tap out @ Finsbury Park), I then called the TFL help line. The bloke there was very helpful and sorted the matter out really quickly.

 

[pelli]

If you haven't done so already, you can create an account on the TfL website ( https://contactless.tfl.gov.uk/ ) and link your bank card to the account. You can then check the journey history of the card to verify that you did get charged a maximum fare for the missing touch-out, and in the menu there should also be an option to "Apply for incomplete journey refund" where you might be offered the opportunity to tell the system where you actually travelled to and get the maximum fare refunded and replaced by the correct fare for your journey.

If you don't want to register for an account and link your bank card, then you can still check the journey history for the last 7 days by entering your card details here: https://contactless.tfl.gov.uk/UnregisteredCustomer/Show , but I don't think you can apply for the incomplete journey refund online and you'll have to call the TfL helpdesk as suggested above.