Sorry for the length of this post, but the situation is rather complicated.

I have had an Oyster card since soon after they were introduced. During my last four years at work I had an annual Bus Pass, paid for with a loan from my employer, and kept a small amount of pre-pay on the card for occasional non-bus journeys. I am now semi-retired, have a part time job and do not travel every day, and so changed to use only pre-pay. Problem with this is that I would forget to top up, cannot pay cash on a bus, and there is not a convenient place to top up near my bus stop. Other than that, I had almost no problems with Oyster.

I have two contactless payment cards, both issued by Barclays, one debit and the other credit. When they started being accepted I tried using these, but there were two problems:

They are awkward to use. I have to remove the card from my wallet, and then put it back which is difficult to do if I have my hands full, as I often do. On a few occasions I have touched out at a station with the 'wrong' card, in with Oyster and out with credit card for example.

I would rather use the debit card, but it seldom works on TfL readers, on buses or at stations. The credit card works most of the time. This only applies with TfL readers, both cards work, and usually read first time contactlessly in shops etc.

Both of my contactless cards have expired and been replaced some time ago, and the same problem applies with the new debit card. These two points seem to suggest that there is nothing physically wrong with the card, and the fact that the credit card usually reads suggests that there is nothing wrong with the readers, except when they are displaying a red light.

I worked in I.T. for 25 years, but know nothing of how these systems work, and how the payments are processed. Can anybody think of any possible reason why a particular card would seldom read on TfL readers, but nearly always read elsewhere? It doesn't seem to make any sense.

On Wednesday morning I became aware that Barclays have finally started supporting Apple Pay. Since I have an iPhone I set up both cards for Apple Pay.. For both cards I received a code number from Barclays, and when I entered this then received a message that each card was ready for Apple Pay.

Later that day I tried using Apple Pay on trains and buses. I couldn't get the debit card to work at all. The credit card worked most of the time, but often took several attempts. This was my use that day:

Coulsdon Town - London Bridge National Rail
London Bridge - Stratford Jubilee Line
Stratford - Hampstead Heath Overground
Hampstead Heath - Victoria Bus route 24
Victoria - Vauxhall Bus route 2
Vauxhall - Norwood Garage Bus route 2
Norwood Garage - Croydon Bus route 468
Croydon - Coulsdon Bus route 60 or 405, I can't remember which.

The Overground section was problematical. The gate at Stratford let me in, but I couldn't get out at Hampstead Heath. Before touching out the iPhone showed the previous transaction as being at a time which would match my entry at Stratford, and after touching out at Hampstead Heath as being 'Just now', so the gate seems to have read the card, the card wasn't rejected, but the gate wouldn't open. I managed to attract the attention of a member of staff, who told me to try again; the card was then rejected each time, presumably because the system thought that I had already exited the station. He said that he didn't know much about Apple Pay; he could let me out, but the system might charge me a maximum fare. The virtual 'card' worked on each of the buses, usually after several attempts. More than once it was at first rejected, but when I removed it from the reader was then accepted, with a green light, without presenting it again, as if there was a long delay in reading it.

In total I was charged £14.30, which does seem too much. All of the rail journeys were off-peak.

On Thursday I made four Journeys, all by bus. I first tried the debit card on Apple Pay, and as usual, it was rejected. On one of the Buses the reader wasn't working, and the driver waved me on. On two of them I used Apple Pay with the credit card. On the last bus Apple Pay wouldn't work at all, so I had to use the actual card. The iPhone shows a total of £3 for that day, which seems correct for two journeys paid for with Apple Pay.

On Friday Apple Pay wouldn't work on a bus using either card. I haven't attempted it again since.

I have tried using Apple Pay in shops, with both cards. While I have only used them a couple of times I had no problems reading in either M+S Simply Food, or the Co-Op.

Has anybody else tried to use Apple Pay with Barclays cards? Have you had any similar problems. Does anybody else know why Barclays have only started supporting Apple Pay when most other banks seem to have supporting it for months?

Who should I contact about this, TfL? Barclays? Apple? I would prefer not to contact them by telephone, my hearing is not very good now, and I find it quite difficult to use the 'phone, especially for something long and complicated like this; it would be much simpler to do it in writing, and just copy and paste from this message.

There's a reason that I haven't tried topping up the Oyster online, but I don't want to make this message any longer!

Thanks for any advice anybody can give.