In message , at 18:32:21 on
Sat, 15 Dec 2012, Paul Corfield remarked:

"...Each bus journey made using your contactless card will be shown
as a separate transaction on your bank or card statement."

When they extend the system to the tube, will the bank statement have a
series of transactions for each trip - like an Oyster receipt? In other
words an entry charge, a refund on exit and all those other entries
generated when you do an OSI. And what about Pink validators, how will
they be shown on your bill?

Similar question about how your bill will present you information about
reaching the daily cap.

The honest answer is that I don't know. All I have managed to glean
from reading bits and bobs is that TfL will process all of the
transactions to determine the charge to be made.

I assume TfL will take the sequence of txns from readers and then
place them in journey sequence and then calculate fares and any caps
due. Passengers will surely need to register their card on pink
validators in order for TfL to be able to process the correct fare? I
assume that the new "TfL black box" that will do the processing will
apply all of the same logic that gates and Oyster cards apply in order
to determine the end charge. I would guess that things like OSI time
parameters will be applied to determine if journeys are continuous or
not. I don't see there would be any benefit in making step by step
financial adjustments on someone's bank account.

The main benefit of doing it would be to expose the audit trail to the
user, to give them the same information as currently available with
Oyster.

On the same theme, will a Paywave card be usable on a ticket machine to
display the last few journeys?

It will be the actual fare paid or cap applied that will be deducted.

That contradicts the "each bus journey will be shown" statement above,
at least as long as the scheme doesn't change when they introduce daily
capping for buses, at which point either the 4th trip will show as 20p
and subsequent ones as 0p, or they'll just show the £4.40 as a single
line item.

My guess is that TfL will say that for multi modal capping to work
properly that card holders will be required to have an online account
with TfL. This would then provide a facility for card holders to review
the journeys and charges that the "black box" has calculated prior to
there being a deduction from someone's bank account.

"In late 2013, you'll be able to use your contactless payment card on:
Tube/DLR/Trams/OG. By then, you'll also be able to check your journey
history online, which means you can see where you've been and how much
it cost." http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...mes/19976.aspx

They don't say where online though. But the next sentence is: "And
because everything will be managed by your card issuer, it means the
whole system is secure." So if the journey history is part of
"everything" (why would it not be, or is this a drafting error), that
means at the very least an Oyster-like site run by the banks, if not
your actual card statement (not everyone has online card statements
enabled).

The Oyster site has been enhanced so you can now request Weekly or
Monthly journey history. Not sure if that is the overview history or the
detailed one. And it says I'll get a statement "in the first few days of
the month", is that the 1st/2nd or anniversaries of subscribing (I
subscribed today, so that'll be 17th/18th).

Meanwhile, I see the bus-wave scheme is currently not as open as one
might suppose. I note that in the small print that: "If you have a
credit, debit or charge card that has been issued *in the UK* (My
emphasis). http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/26416.aspx.

Which seems to blow the foreign tourist market out of the water. Maybe
this is because they've only managed to get the UK banks to agree the
100%-PINless mode and/or 0P transactions.

Also, I'm told it that prepay cards are excluded, which again are
increasingly marketed as a replacement for cash to tourists.

http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/prepaid.aspx

In both cases it's a shame the first time most tourists will get to see
a Paywave symbol in the UK, it won't work.
Of course, the risk with a pre-pay card is that it's empty, which you
can't tell offline.

Finally, I see that: "Although your Barclaycard OnePulse has contactless
technology built in, it will only be recognised on(sic) as an Oyster
card and cannot be used for contactless payments on London's buses."
which answers another of the 'open issues' we had.

I note that the TfL Oyster on line account facility now prompts you if
you have an incomplete journey.

One more hurdle to get to your journey history Their website is
almost unusable on a mobile phone.

I haven't had any so don't know what
happens if you have one but I assume you are asked to confirm what
station you entered or exited at so a charge can be calculated and the
"maximum fare" charge will be revoked and the correct fare charged.

And you'll apparently get a refund which has to be "collected" from a
nominated station.

Alternatively it may work on the basis that if the "black box" cannot
calculate a charge that card holders are notified and asked to review
any incomplete or timed out journeys before any charge is made.

I doubt they'll refrain from making maximum charges, awaiting the user
to log in (wherever that might be) to claim a refund. However, those
refunds might be sent to you straight away, rather than needing
"collection" from a gate.

I would expect the 8 week data retention parameter to remain

It might be more prudent to harmonise it with the card companys' window
for raising chargeback complaints. 90 days??

I can't believe that the banks will want to have to deal with
customers who feel they are wrongly charged when the bank is not
responsible for calculating the charge.

"everything will be managed by your card issuer" according to the TfL
website... [What, even the Paywave equivalent of the Oyster helpline.
What is that, by the way, anyone know?]

I am also doubtful that customers will want TfL to have the right to
impose whatever level of charge on their accounts without the express
ability for customers to review the proposed charge and challenge it if
necessary.

Agreed, so unless there's something in the Card Conditions for Paywave
that would allow the charging of "penalties" for incomplete journeys
then some cardholders are going to feel they've been charged without
justification.

Given the huge complexity of the fare structure...

We'll have to see if Paywave holders are more (or less) forgiving about
perceived overcharging.

Will there be such things as "off peak weekly caps" in the future?

In theory there cold be all sorts of "special offers", but every one
makes the structure more complex and further away from a flat-fare
experience.
--
Roland Perry