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Oyster-haters, rise up: your time is here. As of RIGHT NOW, you can pay for your bus travel (within London) using a NFC card or smartphone of your choosing. I can barely contain myself.
The system goes live on all 8,500 of London’s buses today — the only ones you won’t be able to use your smartphone on are the old heritage Routemasters. The NFC reader is apparently integrated into the Oyster readers, so just touch your contactless payment method of choice onto the reader and hop on board. Fares are the same £1.35 you have to cough up with Oyster; but unlike Oyster, there’s no daily “cap” and you can’t put Travelcards on your contactless payment thing. So, this is more of a oh-shit-I-forgot-my-Oyster-card solution, not something to replace the Oyster card weighing down your back pocket. And remember folks, buses only; though TfL’s got plans to roll NFC out across the whole network, it ain’t happening yet.
A few caveats: don’t keep your Oyster and NFC cards in the same wallet, as that’ll bamboozle the poor old reader. Don’t try and take your screaming child on board and try to pay for both of you — you can only use one contactless thing per person. Finally, don’t use your brand spanking-new contactless card; most cards require you to make a chip-and-pin payment before you can use your card. Phew.
So saddle up; load up your PayWave account and sally forth, to a magical land of NFC wizadry. I hear the 46 through Brixton’s got some good views. [TfL via BBC]
Image credit: London bus from Shutterstock
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Thats gotta be good for those who have NFC on their cards. I cant really see it kicking off on phones but the Kraken has a card with a £15 limit on it that makes the purchase of a McCoronary Burger much spedier, though one does find it Irksome having to limit ones apetite to £15.
Ever see that family guy Cut scene with John Goodman and his emaciated Family?
Thats what it’s like at Camp Spatchmo.
The limit was raised recently to £20 (maybe not for all banks? Definitely for my barclaycard and other credit cards)
that’s like 5 more burgers! (how much IS a normal hamburger at McDicks? 99p? Damn I want a burger now.
Many years ago, in far down South was a place called London where I used to do daily commutes on something called a bus.
I thought only poor people used buses? How can they afford NFC enabled phones? Have they stolen the enabled credit/debit cards?
Another poorly thought out development.
They’re not stolen, those people who can’t afford to feed their kids properly somehow manage to scrape together enough for an LCD cinema TV, Sky Sports, fags and booze, and the latest smartphones.
you forgot the double buggies, the nightclubs etc….. wish I was that poor…
Didn’t TfL a while back say that current NFC implementation isn’t as quick as the system they use for Oyster?
If only I didn’t have a (paper- ARGH!) season ticket else I might be up for using it.
The 46 doesn’t actually go through Brixton. Gosh this article is sooooo inaccurate.
I have a Barclaycard Oyster, so my oyster card and NFC card is rolled into one. How on earth will this work for me?!? Will I pay using both oyster and NFC?
At last! I drive pretty much everywhere, so never carry my Oyster around. Pain in the backside when I take the odd bus trip.
Now bring this on for the tubes!
Wait how would you use your smartphone to pay? My Galaxy Nexus has NFC but since Google Wallet is US only, and the TfL site doesn’t say anything about an app for smartphones to use, shouldn’t the article be modified to not mention smartphones? Or am I missing something?
My thoughts exactly.