On 03/01/2014 12:21, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 11:37:31 on Fri, 3 Jan 2014,
Mizter T remarked:
However, they have either withdrawn the restriction on using foreign or
prepay cards (and many tourists will have foreign prepay cards) or
they've just stopped mentioning it.

How many (if any) prepaid cards have contactless enabled? I suspect
they won't have it, as contactless transactions are all about being
super-quick, 'touch and go', without time for online authorisation.
Enabling contactless would be a risk for the issuer - existing prepaid
cards have a zero floor limit (i.e. automatic online authorisation),
for example.

Yes, I know what the problem for the merchants is (very similar to the
old Electron/Solo issue), but a prepaid card is the sort of thing that
minors, tourists[1] and the uncreditworthy [all three of whom buy tube
tickets] are very likely to have.

You ignored my point, which is that prepaid cards probably won't have
the contactless facility anyway.


Now maybe but the use of such cards will grow over time.

Have they met the deadline set when first introduced [Dec 2012]:

"From the end of 2013, contactless payment cards will be accepted on the
Tube, Docklands Light Railway, London Overground and trams."

I'm not looking forward to that because it would seem it obsoletes my
"Onepulse Barclay/Oyster" - the system charges neither rather than one
or both, apparently. Will they be sending me an automatic refund for the
stored amount?

"the system charges neither rather than one or both, apparently" -
really? I'd expect it to continue acting as an Oyster card when
presented to an Oyster validator

The December 2012 press release says:

"If an Oyster card and a contactless bankcard are presented to a reader
on a bus together (for instance, in a wallet), the readers will normally
reject them both, as it can't be sure which card was intended to be used."

That's talking about (say) a wallet with both an Oyster card and a
contactless bank card in it - not the OnePulse card, which was
specifically designed so that the EMV contactless and Oyster MiFare
elements didn't interfere with each other.

I've read nothing whatsoever about anyone having problems with a
OnePulse card in the past year that contactless bank card payments have
been available on the buses.


(though I'd also expect the product to be discontinued soon

That's a great shame as it reduces the plastic-card-bloat in my wallet.

Not if your contactless credit/debit card can be used in place of an
Oyster card it won't.


Also a slap in the face for early adopters.

Early adopters should be used to slaps in the face!


- when-ish does your card expire, if you don't mind me asking?).

Later this year.

I'd assume it won't be reissued as a OnePulse card. (I'd also guess that
getting the remaining credit off it won't be as easy as you'd like...
unless the Oyster part of the card just carries on working after the
credit card part expires?)