To whom it may concern: Please outline and quantify for FY 2017 by card type and nationality of payment card breakage received and not refunded for passengers where a refund would be due had the passenger filed a compensation request. To be clear, I believe this is most likely to occur when a passenger taps in at a station, and exists at the same station within a short period of time most likely due to disruption and/or no trains. Please also advise a) how this money is accounted for, if you are holding provisions, and if so for how long, for refunds, b) what the money is used for, and c) TFLs official position on why this money isn’t automatically refunded, or the transaction cancelled. Thx

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Our ref: FOI-0379-1819/GH

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 15 May 2018 asking for information about Oyster and Contactless payments.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold some of the information you require.

The charges incurred for making a same station exit depend on the time elapsed between entry and exit. This process aims to strike a balance between preventing fraud and seeking to refund genuine cases, with automatic refunds given where possible.

A full explanation is given on the TfL website:

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/touching-in-and-out#on-this-page-6

Where the exit is less than 30 minutes after the entry, the charge is generally refunded if another rail journey is started in the next 45 minutes.

We also aim to automatically refund same station exit charges where there has not been another same station exit refund in the previous seven days.

If no refund has been received after 48 hours, customers can apply for a refund via the TfL website:

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/replacements-and-refunds/touched-in-and-out-at-same-station

These applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis when they are received, meaning that in cases where no application for a refund has been made we do not assess whether a refund would be appropriate.

We a not, therefore, able to quantify the number of cases where a refund would be due had an application been made.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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