Card clash! It’s coming, dontcha know…a week on Tuesday. Of course, if you’ve been using a contactless card on a bus you’ll already be familiar with the perils of card clash, but now the warnings are being rolled out over the tannoys where ominous voices warn you to enforce Oyster/Visa acardtheid. Because – and this is the real point – you will soon be able to use a contactless debit card to pay on the tube, DLR and London Overground as well as the bus. And the good thing is that the daily and weekly capping works (where a week = Monday-Sunday). That is GOOD NEWS people. No more queuing at the Oyster top-up machine while your train pulls away. You just pay by debit card and it’ll cap itself at the price of a daily travelcard if you make enough journeys. As you might guess, we often make enough journeys to do that.
There are some cons as well as the pros – you can’t combine Oyster and contactless, so if you’re aiming for a weekly cap, you need to remember which card you started on. Obviously it has to be the same debit card each time as well. There’s no monthly or annual cap, so it’s best to just buy a travelcard for those time periods. And the stickiest issue has to be to do with National Rail services (critical for the people of Near-Essex, like us). Apparently, contactless will be accepted on some NR services but it won’t be announced which ones until just before the date. Not overly helpful. But I’ll bring you more info as and when I get it.
Anyhoo, more info here.
While I’m here, a quick couple of shout outs. Firstly, for the Stow Festival this Saturday (13th September), featuring the Walthamstow Acoustic Massive…and me. Secondly, for the Evelina Children’s Hospital Fun Day at the Oval on the same day. You have no reason to be bored this weekend…
