TfL contactless and Curve

[idrive]

Hi, is there anyone using Curve contactless and having problems or noticing weird rejections or charges?

I used Amex all my life to tap in and out. Recently switched to Curve and i am very confused as it seems to me that it is not running smoothly, from the charges I am getting or the number of rejections.

I am then following up with TFL to check some transactions/open journeys but maaan I am wasting my time!!

On this note, I also found out that the full day must be done on the same device or actual card.
Ie. card/card, app/app, fitbit/fitbit etc etc not the underlying card as I thought.
TFL is linking an id to each payment method so that may mess up and not participate to the daily cap.

[Nath4n]

I use Curve daily for TfL.

It is a bit weird how it displays / charges – but I don’t think this is unique to Curve.
You’ll see pending charges, and then the correct ‘daily’ charge go through a day or so later. It’ll look weird / out of sync on the card statement – but will show correctly in your TfL history. I haven’t had any issues with the correct charging after checking TfL/Oyster contactless history (with the exception of below).

Yes – if you touch in using the physical card, and out using contactless (Apple Pay / Google Pay etc etc) on another device – it’ll count as 2 separate journeys. I learnt that the hard way… It also shows as 2 almost identical ‘cards’ on your tfl account. This happens regardless and isn’t unique to Curve. Make sure you’re tapping in and out with the same card/device throughout the day so that it will link them all up correctly and charge you the correct daily charge.

[dst87]

You definitely need to use the same card or device. TFL mention this on their website about the capping feature:

If you use contactless, always use the same card or device. If you don’t, we can’t cap your fares. For example, if you pay with a mobile device on Monday and a contactless card on Tuesday, these fares won’t count towards a weekly cap.

Semi-related to the Curve issue you’re facing here, I found that while some Hotel pending charges didn’t reconcile correctly when the final charge was processed and I’m still trying to unpick the mess and work out who to get to fix it. For anything clever like this, I’ll avoid using Curve in the future. I don’t trust it, and I suspect getting them to fix it will be a real headache.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[BuildBackBetter]

As dst87 mentioned, it’s very clear on the TfL website.

Avoid curve for transactions that are authorisations in nature – the TfL tap and go or the temporary charge at a hotel check in. Most of these transactions don’t result in issues, but I wouldn’t use curve for them.

[dst87]

BuildBackBetter wrote:

Avoid curve for transactions that are authorisations in nature – the TfL tap and go or the temporary charge at a hotel check in. Most of these transactions don’t result in issues, but I wouldn’t use curve for them.

Frustratingly, Curve specifically call out the hotel authorisation scenario as being supported. It was something I was worried about going wrong and while it worked correctly in some cases it definitely didn’t in others. Unreliable, and who can be bothered dealing with the mess left behind?

[idrive]

it is obvious that i will ditch Curve for TFL from now on, but the problem originated when i started having rejections and I had to find an alternative to tap out.
ie. fitbit gets rejected mid travel or on the bus out of the blue. Also actual card is often not working…

Curiously i was mislead when asking a member of stuff. I certainly did not check on the website before as i never had troubles with Amex. All clear now!

[memesweeper]

dst87 wrote:

You definitely need to use the same card or device. TFL mention this on their website about the capping feature:

Absolutely the most fool-proof and convenient way to do this is with the Express Travel feature on an iPhone or Apple Watch (not interchangeably, however, just use one device always). Once set, you tap your phone/watch on to the barrier card reader and It Just Works. No Face ID, no double clicking, no selecting the payment method. The payment method does not need to be the default either, so you can leave Curve on default if you want. And no need to carry the corresponding physical card, so you can keep the Curve card as the only one you carry if you like.