Our Ref:         FOI-3796-1920

Thank you for your request received on 9 March 2020 asking for information about cards using foreign currency being declined.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require.

Firstly, with regard to the use of Contactless travel on the TfL network by overseas visitors, this has been an outstanding success with people using cards from around 150 countries able to participate.

TfL would not describe the scenario you have described as a “fare dodge” - it can only happen once per card. The first time the card is seen, the customer is allowed in and out, but after that the card details are known to the system and no further entries will be allowed using that card if payment is not collected.  In most such cases, although payment is not made initially, it is later recovered by TfL.  TfL also has an arrangement with UK card issuers such that losses are shared with them.

You asked:

• How many fares, in both amount of money and volume, that TfL loses each year from external merchants processing payments in a different currency
o I would like this information both for the most recently available year and the past 5 years
o I would like this information broken down by form of transport (Underground, overground train, bus, tram, DLR)

We do not lose any money due to external merchants processing payments in a different currency. If a customer pays for a TfL fare with a valid card, the card issuer is obliged to pay in pounds sterling. Meanwhile the customer would normally be charged in the local currency with the appropriate exchange rate applied.  TfL is no different to any other merchant in this respect.

• How many fares that TfL loses, in cash value and volume, because of declined fares in general, that it fails to recoup the cost of at a later date
o I would like this information both for the most recently available year and the past 5 years
o I would like this information broken down by form of transport (Underground, overground train, bus, tram, DLR)

We take “declined fares” here to mean instances where a customer has travelled but we have not been able to collect payment in the normal way.  We do not hold a breakdown by the various transport modes. However, an analysis of the overall value of unrecovered revenue has been kept for each financial period over most of the past two years. The estimated total figures are £1.19m (2018/19) and £1.88m (2019/20). Although such unrecovered debt has been increasing, this is at a time of significant increase in the number of Contactless journeys, and it is known that the two statistics are strongly related.

The proportion of ultimately unrecovered revenue relative to overall Contactless sales remains very small – in recent periods it has been around 0.09%, making contactless one of the most cost efficient ways of paying for travel on TfL.

If this is not the information you are looking for please feel free to contact me.

Please note, the Government has announced a series of measures to tackle the coronavirus. It is essential for London, and in particular for all critical workers, that we continue to provide a safe transport network that enables them to make the journeys they need to.

In current circumstances, we are not able to answer FOI requests readily and we ask that you please do not make a request to us at present.

Answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. In any event, please note that our response time will be affected by the current situation.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
Senior FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
[email protected]