Free train, bus and tube travel in London on Friday with Mastercard contactless

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• thesaver79 says:

  13 Nov13 November 10:03

  It’s a shame my travel card is valid until tomorrow!

• Andrew says:

  13 Nov13 November 12:05

  Shame – my Tesco Mastercard is not contactless, but my other Visa debit and credit cards are.

  But this has just reminded me that I must get my annual train season ticket (gold card, effectively a network railcard, just renewed) added back to my oyster card. Thanks!

  • carpentr says:

    13 Nov13 November 12:58

    Have you seen that changes are afoot for Gold Card benefits – some good, such as an extension of their geographical range, and some not, such as the withdrawal of the £5 First Class supplement?

    • Trevor says:

      13 Nov13 November 16:14

      And a 900% increase in price for the supplementary Railcard and no child flat fares.

  • Tim says:

    13 Nov13 November 14:55

    Slightly ot but if you renew your gold card with a gold amex, does it trigger double points as ‘travel spend’? Thanks

    • David says:

      13 Nov13 November 15:12

      Anything bought from a station ticket office (incl standard train tickets, season tickets, railcards) typically posts as double points – but this could vary depending on which train company you buy from.

      Anything bought from the TFL Oyster website (incl Oyster credit topups and Oyster season tickets) posts as TRIPLE points. Not sure why but it’s a nice bonus especially if buying a £1000+ annual Oyster travelcard!

      • Tim says:

        13 Nov13 November 15:19

        Thanks David. My Gold Card is over £5k so the only silver lining is maxing the points….

        • Andrew says:

          13 Nov13 November 16:44

          Thanks for the note about changes to gold card benefits. Not so good.

          Missed a trick here: renewed my season ticket with employer cheque (season ticket loan), but could have used a credit card instead (hmm – easy way to trigger £3,000 BAPP bonus, and chunk towards £10k spend), and then reclaimed from employer instead. Note to self for next year!

• ww says:

  13 Nov13 November 13:22

  Will it work with cards issued abroad? I have a few UK Visas and Amexes but sadly no Mastercards. I do, however, have a Mastercard issued elsewhere.

  • Jan says:

    13 Nov13 November 18:50

    T&C does not say anything about UK issued cards. Simply try, you don’t have much to lose anyway.

• Robin says:

  13 Nov13 November 13:50

  A big problem for customers using credit cards on Tfl is that the touch-in touch-out machines don’t indicate the cost (as they do with Oyster cards) So, if a machine fails to read – or you forget – you don’t know you’re charged a penalty fare , until you receive your card statement. Of course it’s a win-win for TfL but not for the customer.

  • Robin says:

    13 Nov13 November 13:52

    so yes it’s great, do use the free travel and £5 rebates on Amex but don’t get addicted to using your card afterwards! Thanks for the tip Raffles

  • Trevor says:

    13 Nov13 November 16:16

    I believe if you register your card online like your oyster card, then you can check journey history and charges.

    • Alan says:

      13 Nov13 November 17:38

      Yes I’ve registered all my contactless cards with this and it works really nicely, was pretty impressed!

• Peter says:

  13 Nov13 November 16:34

  Talking of Amex cards, has there been a change to referring a friend to get a card?

  I was looking today and you now need to tell them what card you already have or they will not credit you or the person you refer a bonus.

  Additionally, my British Airways (non-premium) Amex will only let me refer for other British Airways Amex Cards. Likewise my wife’s Gold Charge Card will only allow referrals for Green, Gold and Platinum charge cards.

  This is a real nuisance and seems a strange turn of events as you may want to refer for a different type of card and you can’t now it seems.

  PS I posted this on another thread but there are more comments on this one so I’m putting it twice sorry as seems important.

  • Blair says:

    13 Nov13 November 17:42

    How do Tfl distinguish between different cardholders with the same number e.g primary and supplementary cardholders when applying weekly caps?

    • Alan says:

      13 Nov13 November 17:52

      My guess would be that the contactless chip in the card has a unique ID and they base it on that rather than the card number. However I don’t know how that then works for trying it up with the website. I think only MBNA issue additional cards with the same number, but it’s an interesting question!

      • Blair says:

        13 Nov13 November 17:57

        Same goes for viewing your journey history online…must be the card name or cvv?

      • JQ says:

        13 Nov13 November 21:45

        Nationwide issues cards with the same number too.

        If this worked, you could use it to get the same cap for multiple people, but you wouldn’t be able to travel at the same time on trains.

        Might try it on a bus with my wife one day.

        • Roger says:

          13 Nov13 November 22:26

          Nationwide issues VISA cards. This is a MASTERCARD promotion. 😉

  • Mark2 says:

    13 Nov13 November 18:06

    How would Amex know where to put the reward points if you do not give them your card details?

  • TimS says:

    13 Nov13 November 18:31

    This is how it has been for quite some time now I think?

    Well over a year at least!

    • TimS says:

      13 Nov13 November 18:34

      The Plat/Gold/Green referral bonus is MRs so of course you have to have an MR card to do it.

      BA card referral bonuses are Avios so again they have to go on an Avios earning card for obvious reasons.

  • Rob says:

    13 Nov13 November 18:50

    It has been this way for months, the referral system was rebooted in June-ish.

    • Peter says:

      14 Nov14 November 12:15

      Ah, ok. It’s just I referred my wife for the Gold Charge card from a British Airways card in Feb and it was fine so knew something had changed some point this year.

      Never noticed in July when she referred me for platinum for obvious reasons. It rather messes up referrals between us in the future, though I’m sure you’ll give me a boost when needed Raffles 😉

      • TimS says:

        14 Nov14 November 12:52

        May have been some sort of legacy arrangement that allowed you to refer for Gold from BA as I have only been able to refer for another BA from my BA (and refer Plat/Gold/Green from my Gold) for well over a year now. My folks had similar restrictions on what they could refer as well so I know this arrangement has been in place for some people since at least 2013.

• Aaron says:

  13 Nov13 November 19:46

  Received this from Metro Bank, which confirms the Nov 28th as well:

  On Friday 14 November Metro Bank Customers will be able to benefit from Mastercard’s Fare Free Friday.
  metrobankonline.co.uk
  Travel free in London with your contactless Metro Bank MasterCard Debit or Credit Card

  On Friday 14 November, Metro Bank Customers will be able to benefit from MasterCard’s Fare Free Friday. Touch in and out with your contactless Metro Bank debit or credit card between 04:30am on Friday 14 and 01:00am on 15 November and your fare will be refunded. Please note refunds will be capped at £21.80 and may take up to 28 working days to appear in your account.
  To qualify for a refund, all you need to do is use your contactless Metro Bank card to travel on London Underground, London Buses, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway, participating National Rail services in London and the Tramlink on Friday 14 November.
  Fare Free Friday will also take place on Friday 28 November. Details about MasterCard’s Fare Free Friday can be found at http://www.mastercard.co.uk/contactless.
  We love to hear from you – if you have any questions visit any store 7 days a week, call 24/7 on 0345 08 08 500 or visit metrobankonline.co.uk.
  Aisling Kane
  Customer Services Director mastercard contactless
  T&Cs: MasterCard Contactless – TFL – Fare Free Friday
  MasterCard Contactless card and device holders only. Offer available from 04:30am 14/11/2014 to 01:00am 15/11/2014. The refund, to a maximum value of £21.80, will take up to 28 working days. Under 18s will require guardian/parental consent to take part. Offer subject to normal availability. Offer excludes travel on London River Bus and Emirates Air Line. Journeys must be paid for using a MasterCard Contactless card or device. Visit mastercard.co.uk/contactless for full terms and conditions.

• IslandDweller says:

  14 Nov14 November 13:24

  Robin at 13:50 in 13Nov “So, if a machine fails to read – or you forget – you don’t know you’re charged a penalty fare”
  It’s true that you don’t see the fare at the time of usage (because your usage is tracked over the day and then charged as a single payment at end of day). But using your contactless card on the entry barrier or bus reader generates the same success “beep” as using Oyster – and the display shows “accepted”. So you do know that your card has been read by the system.

• YL says:

  14 Nov14 November 23:28

  Has anyone managed to use the Lloyds Avios Master card for this promotion?
  For some reason, it shows up as card not accepted when I tried to touch in…

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