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A few years ago I had some bizarre issues with contactless that made me swap back to Oyster, one of which has reared its head again today.
Every now and again as we know TfL will check the contactless card is still active by pre authorising 10p – in my experience this is most likely if the card hasn’t been used for a while or if it’s a brand new card.
I used my contactless to travel on buses only yesterday and at about 3am a transaction appeared on my account as expected for £5.25
However, at 8.37am this morning a second transaction appeared also for £5.25 on my account.
Both are pending but this means my bank account is showing a lower balance than it should be.
Last time this occurred, one transaction correctly went through but I had to wait about a week for the second pending transaction to “drop off”
Not surprisingly, I can’t wait a week for every time TfL do this as it adds up! So I will go back to my trusty Oyster again 🙁Luckily it was just £5.25 but some people may get hit for £14.90 or more which with todays cost of living issues isn’t great at all
Hi Chris,
This is not good. Have you asked TfL what is happening? Perhaps send them a screenshot of your pending transactions. You could also ask your bank whether there is anything they are aware of, just in case it’s at their end. I’ve never seen anything like this occur on my card. Can you disclose who you bank with and whether it’s a debit or credit card?
The 10p authorisation is a separate issue. As you say, it’s made when the card hasn’t been used recently for TfL travel. Usually it is replaced by the correct figure for the whole day. I am aware of an annoying glitch with Curve where the 10p gets treated as a transaction and the full amount is reduced by 10p at the end of the day.
As you say, if it’s happening with people travelling from Reading then it could be a serious drain on funds until it drops off.
Morning Mike,
I currently bank with Monzo and it’s using a debit MasterCard.
I haven’t yet contacted TfL or Monzo regarding the double transactions because I know from past experience that they have no interest unless the transaction actually goes through – so all the time it’s pending they won’t do anything.My previous issues were when I used Curve and NatWest cards and in every occasion bar one it was with an early morning journey.
I would find that the first bus trip was fine but if TfL chose to do the 10p authorisation while the bank was doing it’s daily maintenance then the second bus trip would fail because the NatWest would frequently decline the 10p authorisation during its downtime – this nearly got me stranded in Welling at 4.30am on a few occasions as my card was now not accepted for travel!
This was the main reason that I went back to using Oyster despite TfL pushing the use of contactless.Not just me then. Mondays charges came up as pending on my account twice and are still showing as such at the time of writing. Additionally yesterdays fares aren’t even showing as pending as yet.
Mine also both still showing as pending (I used Oyster yesterday so no contactless to show for yesterday anyway) 🙂
Thanks Chris (and Phil),
It would appear that your return to contactless has co-incided with an almighty glitch at the TfL end. I’ve asked some questions. I would say that this is unlikely to be repeated and is not necessarily an indication that earlier problems are still around. I fully understand your nervousness though.
Hi Mike,
As expected one of the two transactions has been correctly taken with the other remaining pending which will go back into the account next week at some pointI wonder how many people were affected by this glitch lol
Hi Chris,
TfL have confirmed that there was a problem earlier in the week. They didn’t divulge how big it was. Everything is expected to be rectified overnight tonight, if it hasn’t already been so.
Hi Mike,
Do you know who the best person to contact at TfL is about this?
The £5.25 is still showing on my account as pending.
Monzo have suggested raising this as a dispute but TfL will probably block the contactless card if I do thisI did finally get to speak to someone at TfL who were remarkably unhelpful and told me that as it’s a pending transaction that I have to contact the bank.
Which I did and I had to raise a dispute over the £5.25 pending transaction.
The bank have said it will take a week to review the dispute and up to a further 12 weeks to resolve so if they agree with me then I’ll get the pending transaction reversed by 2nd February 2024!It’s obviously far too much hassle so as I said in my initial post I’ll be using Oyster from now on as clearly contactless has a few issues still 🙁
Pending transactions are supposed to ‘drop off’ after 7 days or so if they’re not collected. The double posting may be down to TfL, I don’t know, but this is more of a banking issue than a contactless one.
Hi Chris,
I do sympathise with your situation. Can you please confirm whether the second transaction has now dropped off your account?
Well I am surprised there. I’d be asking Monzo how long they leave pending transactions which aren’t collected. My own experiences with a variety of credit cards is no more than 5 working days.
It’s up to you though.
There seems to be some differing times depending on the transaction as a general rule the transaction drops off on the 8th day but can be 30 days for some types of payment.
Monzo have already told me that TfL payments take an extended time to drop off because they work differently to normal contactless payments and this can be up to 12 weeks!
I have had to dispute this pending transaction now to try and get it removed from my account.Fortunately for me it’s only £5.25 but I do wonder how many other people have been affected with larger amounts and haven’t noticed!
Although the pending amount has still not dropped off the account, because I have had to put a dispute in Monzo have refunded the £5.25 and when it does eventually drop off they’ll take back that £5.25 so I’m not any worse off but it does mean I can use those funds whilst TfL muck about!
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