"solar penguin" wrote:

Mizter T wrote:

"solar penguin" wrote:

And if you think I'm being paranoid, ask yourself why TfL banned
newsagents from accepting credit/debit card payments for Oyster top-
ups.

But TfL *haven't* banned newsagents from accepting credit/debit card
payments for Oyster top-ups - it's up to the newsagents themselves to
decide
on whether they want to offer that or not.

That's not what the newsagents themselves said. I've heard this at
two different shops, so it's not just one newsagent that's mistaken.

It's worth bearing in mind the
cost to the shopkeeper of processing credit/debit card payments, which
might
well wipe out the commission they get for selling Oyster top-ups, or at
least significantly reduce it to the point of it not being worth their
while. If customers are making a larger purchase, of which topping up
their
Oyster is only part, then shopkeepers might well be more amenable to
payment
by credit/debit card - though some will have it as an absolute rule.

Just the opposite. One newsagent made me split my purchase, paying
for the Oyster by cash, and the other goods by debit card. He clearly
had no problem accepting debit cards in general, but insisted TfL
rules didn't allow him to accept them for Oyster.

So this raises the question of why TfL are letting newsagents believe
they're not allowed to accept credit/debit card payments for Oyster if
it's not he case?

Perhaps there's some issue w.r.t. the settlement of monies which makes
accepting credit/debit card payments more troublesome (e.g. TfL want the
money for Oyster card purchases before the retailer has got it from their
payment card processer).

FWIW this is what it says on the Oyster Ticket Stops section of the TfL
website:

---quote---
How to pay
Please check with individual retailer which types of payment are accepted.
---/quote---

Source:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14434.aspx

If Oyster Ticket Stops (OTS) weren't permitted to accept credit/debit card
payments for Oyster top-ups at all, then one wouldn't expect the above text
to appear. That's not to say that the local relationship manager or whatever
doesn't just say to OTS shopkeepers that accepting debit/credit cards is
more trouble than its worth (for whatever reason). One possibility is that
to accept credit/debit card payments for Oyster top-ups, OTS shopkeepers
have to pass a more rigourous credit test, and many/most don't bother with
that - in which case they'd be right in saying that TfL rules meant that
they couldn't accept credit/debit card payments for Oyster.