So, realistically, what value does paying with your phone add over an Oyster or contactless card?
Sure, you might claim that I'm more likely to forget my Oyster than my phone, but I'm also much less likely to run out of power on the Oyster.
Sure, you might claim that I'm more likely to forget my Oyster than my phone, but I'm also much less likely to run out of power on the Oyster.
- I normally have my phone in my hand anyway. - My phone is in a pocket by it's self, so there is less risk of pulling out keys, coins, or notes along with my wallet. - I have many contact-less cards, so would have to pull the right one out of my wallet. - I would then have to put everything back, and go back to getting out my phone. - I get an apple pay notification ever evening when my card is charged, so I can easily tell if I have been over charged and get a refund.
Phones and contactless payments actually do the fare-capping calculations slightly differently - if you do a "commute into London, then around London a bunch, then back" travel pattern, it can purchase a virtual central-London travelcard in the middle of the day, and adjust the commute-in payment retroactively. If you want that fare treatment with Oyster then you need to get the travelcard option loaded on it in advance.
> or contactless
modestly better security
This "contactless phone payment" seems more like a gimmick than anything else
I actually had to do all of these things, because the first set of machines I ran into (and then used to purchase an Oyster card) didn't have signs about being able to use contactless now.. all of those signs were around the corner :-)
London is lucky enough to (at least for the underground) allow cash or EFT fares at the stations, in some hostile cities like Sydney you cannot catch a bus without a pre-purchased multi rider card which you can only buy from certain outlets.. you can not pay cash on board. Combining the inefficiencies of avoiding cash on rides with the global standard of contact less payments makes total sense to me
A phone replaces all this just like FiveStars replaced carrying point cards.