"Paul Corfield" wrote:

The use of credit and debit cards is pointless for machines selling
something costing at a maximum £2.50.

c2c and London Underground both have machines at my local stations, which
are happy to take my plastic for a £1.50 return to Upminster, and this is
how I typically pay. Carrying around shedloads of coins destroys suit
trouser pockets. I accept the average fare at these machines is going to be
above £2.50, but probably no more than £5.

There is also the issue of
commission and how anti fraud checks would be carried out. This is not
something that is in the gift of TfL - the banks would almost certainly
insist on a range of on line checks (thus adding to costs) or else they
would bump up the commission charges to reflect the fraud risk.

No different for ticket machines at LU/National Rail stations. At these
values, the transactions would probably be below the retailer 'floor limit',
and therefore there wouldn't be any fraud checks as such. There would need
to be a telecoms link from the machines to a Bank data centre, but I imagine
the machines are already telecoms wired for remote fault reporting etc.

And I don't understand the point about commission charges. Yes, there would
be a card interchange fee payable by TfL every time a card was used - but
surely they are charged every time they go to the Bank with a bag of
miscellaneous coins to pay in? In addition, they pay someone to empty the
machine and someone else to sort and bag the coin. IMX most businesses
drastically underestimate the costs of cash handling, because it isn't a
very exciting matter to think about.

Either
way it costs more to TfL and in the latter cash potentially the
passenger. Who would want to pay £2.70 for a £2.50 One Day Bus Pass for
the privilege of using plastic as payment?

It shouldn't be necessary to charge a premium - but if it was, I suspect
most people would consider 20 pence a negligible sum. Plenty of people pay
£1 to use 'remote' ATMs in convenience stores rather than walk to the
nearest Bank, and plenty of Ebay users are willing to pay a premium to use
Paypal, rather than fanny around with letters, stamps and cheques.

Chris