On Wednesday I used my Natwest debit card to make two single bus journeys on London Buses using the contactless payment system. I'm currently in the process of switching bank provider and had forgotten that the bank account my contactless card is linked to had a nil balance of £0.00.

I made both an out and return single journey and the reader on the buses accepted the contactless card despite having a nil balance.

I noticed that my bank account has been charged for the two single bus journeys which has given me a negative bank balance of -£2.90. Natwest will not charge me a daily arranged overdraft fee unless I go below -£6, so I'll just pay the £2.90 over the counter the next time I go to my local branch.

I'm enquiring to whether TfL will attempt to levy their own late charge(s) against me for using contactless despite having a nil bank balance?

Regardless, it's nice to know if you're ever skint and out of pocket you can use contactless to get you home! ;-)

In message , at
10:02:35 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014, Christopher Miles-Patrick Date
remarked:
On Wednesday I used my Natwest debit card to make two single bus
journeys on London Buses using the contactless payment system. I'm
currently in the process of switching bank provider and had forgotten
that the bank account my contactless card is linked to had a nil
balance of £0.00.

I made both an out and return single journey and the reader on the
buses accepted the contactless card despite having a nil balance.

Buses are not online.

I noticed that my bank account has been charged for the two single bus
journeys which has given me a negative bank balance of -£2.90. Natwest
will not charge me a daily arranged overdraft fee unless I go below
-£6, so I'll just pay the £2.90 over the counter the next time I go to
my local branch.

I'm enquiring to whether TfL will attempt to levy their own late
charge(s) against me for using contactless despite having a nil bank
balance?

No, because they already have the £2.90

Regardless, it's nice to know if you're ever skint and out of pocket
you can use contactless to get you home! ;-)

--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
10:02:35 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014, Christopher Miles-Patrick Date
remarked:
On Wednesday I used my Natwest debit card to make two single bus
journeys on London Buses using the contactless payment system. I'm
currently in the process of switching bank provider and had forgotten
that the bank account my contactless card is linked to had a nil balance of £0.00.

I made both an out and return single journey and the reader on the
buses accepted the contactless card despite having a nil balance.

Buses are not online.

And do TfL submit the charge before the end of the day anyway? Even with
Tube tickets, with daily capping etc, surely the charge can't be made until
the overnight accounting?


I noticed that my bank account has been charged for the two single bus
journeys which has given me a negative bank balance of -£2.90. Natwest
will not charge me a daily arranged overdraft fee unless I go below
-£6, so I'll just pay the £2.90 over the counter the next time I go
to my local branch.

I'm enquiring to whether TfL will attempt to levy their own late
charge(s) against me for using contactless despite having a nil bank balance?

No, because they already have the £2.90

Indeed, the fact that the bank accepted the charges means that TfL wouldn't
even know that the account was empty. I assume contactless cards are set up
to accept charges up to the local limit regardless of the balance in the
account. It's up to the customer to pay any overdraft charges that result;
the vendor shouldn't have to care.


Regardless, it's nice to know if you're ever skint and out of pocket
you can use contactless to get you home! ;-)

Good point, but some people in this situation may pay a hefty overdraft
charge if they do.

On 2014-09-26 17:17:46 +0000, Roland Perry said:

Buses are not online.

And even if they were, nobody making a card transaction can know what
the balance of your bank account is. All they get to know is whether
the transaction was accepted or not. And even then, if not doing a
pre-authorisation they will not know that potentially until well after
the event.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2014-09-26 23:25:11 +0000, Paul Corfield said:

You are right that there is an overnight process for all the
transactions received to determine the amount or capped amount to be
drawn from the card holder's bank. Obviously there is also a weekly
process to determine if a credit has to be applied if 7 days worth of
daily travel exceeds a 7 Day Travelcard cap.

Is that how they're doing it, rather than just stopping billing when
you hit the cap? Messy.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.