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.