On 10/10/2014 13:37, Theo Markettos wrote:

Roland Perry wrote:
[...]
It also should be remembered that contactless payment is not an option for
people with non-UK cards (and, for credit control reasons, may continue that
way).

I thought they'd gone a long way to fixing that.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-paym...tless/what-is-
contactless#outside

That's still a UK-centric view of the world. What proportion of issuers in
non-UK countries issue contactless cards at all? And how many are
compatible? For example, if I have a China UnionPay card it won't work in
London (AIUI) - it's not just a question of technology but it's a
stored-value card so would need very different processes?

The blurb is concerning contactless cards, so that point is irrelevant
in the context of the above page. It does say that some contactless
cards might not work - for Mastercard & Maestro it suggests the
countries where the cards that are more likely not to work are issued.
And it specifically says UnionPay, Diners Club and JCB aren't accepted.

If you're making the more general point that it would be foolish to
assume most visitors (even several years down the line) might have
contactless cards, then I'd absolutely agree with you. There isn't any
suggestion that bank (or similar) payment cards are going to be the only
way to pay in the future - for a whole host of reasons, that'd be
totally unworkable anyway.