TfL fury as many Londoners find that they are being charged the maximum amount despite tapping in and out when commuting during the week, but have finally figured out the reason why
Londoners are outraged after discovering their weekday commutes on the London Underground are more expensive than expected because of one major mistake. One commuter shared their frustration on Reddit, revealing that they had struggled to understand how TfL calculates fares after being charged over £20 for a journey.
Their post read: “I start my journey at North Acton (Central line) and end the journey at Victoria (Circle line). According to Google, this should cost around £5. My bank statement shows TfL is charging £10.40 each way (£20.80 per day). I can’t work out what is happening.”
It turned out the issue stemmed from using two different payment methods. Although the same physical card was linked to both a phone and a smartwatch, each device has a unique identifier, and TfL treats them as separate payment methods.
This means that even if your physical card is connected to Apple Pay, you’ll see several incomplete journeys if you don’t tap in and tap out using the same method. TfL charges the maximum fare for incomplete journeys.
Despite many Londoners requesting refunds without knowing the cause, one Reddit user explained: “They [TfL] can refuse to refund if the errors were within your control, but if you don’t have a history of refunds, they should be able to use discretion to refund you this time.”
Another wrote: “Make sure you contact TfL with full details of all your journeys and methods used. I put everything into a big spreadsheet, explained that I didn’t realise they treated each device as a separate card, they told me off and then refunded the difference that I’d calculated.”
TfL has published a notice on their website advising commuters to use the same device: “Whether you use contactless or Oyster, be sure to use the same card or device to touch in and out. For example, don’t touch in with your iPhone and touch out with your Apple Watch, contactless card or Oyster card.
“Where you touch in and out tells us where you’ve travelled from and to, so we can charge you the right fare for your journey,” the website explains.
Between zones one to nine, the maximum fare is £10.40 during peak hours and £7.00 during off-peak times. Peak hours are Monday to Friday, between 6:30am–9:30am and 4:00pm–7:00pm.
These charges are also dependent on the age as adults are charged the maximum, yet those under 16s are charged less than £6. This is because children are valid to have a zip oyster card between the ages of 11 -15 where some transport is free such as the bus, and others are discounted.
Off-peak hours are all other times. However, if you travel from a station outside Zone one into Zone one between 4:00pm and 7:00pm on weekdays, it is still considered peak time.
Zone one covers Central London. Zone two surrounds Zone one, and the distance between zones increases as you move outward. Zones seven, eight, and nine, cover small areas just outside North West London, including Watford, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Amersham, and Chalfont & Latimer.