From today, London's bus passengers can leave their Oyster cards at home and pay with contact-less bank cards instead.
New technology has been introduced on London's buses, so you can pay your fare on board using a debit or credit card. Instead of swiping your Oyster card on the yellow reader, selected bank cards can now be used instead.
London Tonight's Ria Chatterjee has been testing it out in Victoria.
You can use most credit or debit cards provided it has the Wi-Fi symbol of four arcs of a set of concentric circles (see below). It doesn’t matter whether your plastic is Visa, Master Card, debit, credit, pre-pay or anything else, if you can see the symbol, then you can use that card.
Payment through PayPass will cost the same as having paid on Oyster - including the discounted rates. From 2013 that's £1.40 for a single ride. However, unlike using an Oyster Card, there are no daily limits. Cash payments will cost £2.40 from 2013.
Transport for London says that the contactless card payment scheme will be rolled out on the Docklands Light Railway, London Overground, tube and trams by the end of 2013.
Discussions are also underway with London's train companies about accepting contactless payment cards on National Rail services where Oyster is currently accepted.
Bus passengers can now swipe their debit, credit or charge cards directly onto the yellow Oyster readers on all of London's buses.
They will be charged the same amount as the Oyster single fare of £1.35, rather than the cash price of £2.30.
American Express, MasterCard and Visa Europe contactless payment cards will be accepted, but there is no daily price cap on the amount charged, as there currently is with Oyster cards.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said:
“Lots of us have had the frustrating experience of dashing to board a bus only to discover that our Oyster card has run out of credit. So the arrival of this latest technology is welcome news, meaning that with a simple touch of a contactless payment card, people can avoid having to scrabble for change and also still benefit from the Oyster fare discount. This is the latest in a range of ways we are working to make passenger journeys even easier and more convenient.”
From today London buses will accept contactless bank card payments as an alternative to an Oyster card.
Passengers who swipe their bank card will be charged the same as Oyster pay-as-you-go.