On 30/03/2015 21:58, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at
21:26:15 on Mon, 30 Mar 2015, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
[...]
Indeed; even the TfL website isn't sure exactly which foreign or prepay
contactless cards they accept.

Isn't that just posterior covering? Most cards will work, but if they
said "all", then someone would one day turn up with a People's
Republic of Donbass bank card which isn't even recognised by the goat
sellers of the Donbass People's Republic, never mind anywhere else.

Have you actually looked at what they say?

Yes. I rather suspect it is isn't realistic to cover every possibility
currently out there in the wild, so "nearly all" is a safe bet; the
best is the enemy of the good, 80:20 and all that.

Not bothering with contactless because someone might have an obscure
(for London) card would seem silly - did ticket machines ever take
Canadian dollars or Aruban florins anyway?

All American Express contactless payment cards.

Hurrah (although I don't know how many of them actually exist)

Nearly all MasterCard and Maestro contactless payment cards issued
outside the UK are accepted.

The majority of cards that aren't accepted are issued in the USA,
Canada and the Netherlands.

So no details, and pretty insignificant sources of tourists to the UK.

There are also a few other cards that may not be accepted.

Unspecified, again.

If your card is rejected on our services, please contact your card
issuer.

That's a great help to someone on holiday.

Some Visa and V PAY contactless payment cards from countries other
than the UK are not accepted for contactless travel on our services.

Unspecified

Visa expects all its contactless payment cards to be accepted in the
near future.

We are sat on the edge of our seats.

Contactless payment cards issued on other platforms, such as Diners
Club, JCB or Union Pay are not accepted.

Hard luck.


Might as well just give up then, shut down the transport system, forget
about this modern living lark and go back to hunting on the savannah.
Though I imagine there'd still be one or two persistent voices around
the camp fire complaining long into the night about how things don't work...