Contactless cards and ticket inspections

[Barn]

I switched from Oyster to contactless for London travel recently. Just wondering, if a ticket inspection occurred on a National Rail service, how does the TOC validate contactless cards? It feels a bit odd having nothing with me but my bank card! I guess they just don't bother inspecting very frequentlywithin the travelcard zones.

 

[causton]

If they have the old Oyster readers; nothing.

If they have the new ones which take contactless cards; touch your contactless card. They have no way of knowing on the spot if you have paid, but if you have then it will not do anything; if you have not you will get a 'black mark' against your contactless account and possibly get some sort of maximum fare charged to it (this bit I am unsure of!)

 

[Kristofferson]

Makes sense. I guess it's not too hard to check whether that card has been used at a station in the last x hours.

 

[MikeWh]

If they have the old Oyster readers; nothing.

If they have the new ones which take contactless cards; touch your contactless card. They have no way of knowing on the spot if you have paid, but if you have then it will not do anything; if you have not you will get a 'black mark' against your contactless account and possibly get some sort of maximum fare charged to it (this bit I am unsure of!)

Pretty much. You'll get a maximum fare if you weren't in the system when checked. After the third time your contactless card will be hotlisted so you can't use it on Oyster services again.

 

[yorkie]

Just wondering, if a ticket inspection occurred on a National Rail service, how does the TOC validate contactless cards?

I had one such inspection (London Overground) a couple of weeks ago and they were equipped with validators. Of course, they had no idea whether or not I had already validated or not (and as others have said, if I hadn't, it would have triggered a maximum fare).