TfL Online Account

[XFool]

Has anyone got a Transport for London (TfL) online account? What's your experience?

I have a TfL online account - for now. Even though I didn't need one, don't want one and I didn't even set one up! How does that work? (Read on...) Not only that, it's got my credit cards (more than one) listed in the account, even though (apart from the current one) I have never registered any of them...

It started - or so it seemed - on 6 March 2019. Going through the barrier in central London I accidentally used my Credit Card rather than my Freedom Pass. I asked a TfL staff member what to do, he said contact them and give details. So when I got home I did, via email, giving all my details. They said send us a photo of your Freedom Pass, I emailed it back to them it was all sorted on the day. Easy.

That was then, this is now:

In January this year - while returning from a medical appointment in London - I made the same mistake again as in 2019, went through the barrier with my credit card instead of my Freedom Pass. No problem! I know how to sort this - I'll email them when I get home. So I did.

Yeah, I know we are now in April.

So they wanted me to register my "Contactless Travel Card on my TfL online account", so they could see my "Journey".

1. But I don't have an online TfL account (Ho!)
2. But I don't have a "Contactless Travel Card" - Well I do, it's a Freedom Pass. I just want my money back.
3. You can't register a Freedom Pass on a TfL online account - I checked, via email, with the outside body who deals with them. They mean the CC, which isn't my "Travel Card", AFAIAC.
4. I don't need or even want to register my credit card in a TfL online account. I never use my CC for paying to travel in London (Well I do! But not intentionally...)

Back and forth, back and forth: "Can I deregister my CC after this?", "Yes, after 5 days". "Can I have my online TfL account closed after this?", "Yes".

OK, as clearly they are not going to budge, I'll do as they want and then close it all down afterwards.

So I try to set up my online TfL account to register my CC. I can't! There is already such an account user name in use... Uh? It can't be me, I've never registered one and so have no log on passwords etc. I get mad and tell them what I think in their 'Feed back form'. Bah!

A day or so later, inspiration. What if, last time this happened (March 2019) an account WAS set up by someone at TfL and my then CC registered so I could be paid back that fare so promptly? In which case... I just need to recover a password using "Forgotten your password?". It works - hurrah!

So I eventually logged on and saw I already had an out of date credit card registered on 'my' account. Looks like my guess was correct. So I registered my current credit card and deleted the old, out of date card. Told TfL I was good to go - and explained why I had been having problems originally logging on to or even creating 'my' online account. i.e. No recorded password and no record of there even being an online TfL account with my old credit card registered on it.

They replied OK but can you tell us where your first job was (security word - from online account?). I couldn't remember. OK, I could remember that, but I couldn't remember that being asked online and I hadn't kept that info recorded and plausibly it might be answered in more than one way. So... I thought: "I'll log on and check, just to ensure I don't get this wrong and this goes on for several more months". I couldn't log on! "Wrong details...." Aaagghhh!

I went through the whole "Forgotten your password?" routine once more (even though I had recorded it). I logged on. Whew! What had I said to security question? Dunno, I couldn't seem to read it - I could set it but not, seemingly, see what I had set it to. OK, so I set it to a town, noticing on the way that the menu offered a choice of options for security words. One was: "Name of your first pet" - Funny, I could have sworn....

Then I saw it. An old out of date credit card of mine. But I removed that last time, didn't I? Yes I did. No I didn't! I can remember the last four numbers of the old card I had removed last time - the one that must have been entered in 'my' online account by a TfL staff member - unbeknownst to me - the last time (March 2019) this happened, which originally stopped me setting up 'my' online account this time around. Because 'I' already had one...

But THIS old credit card is not THAT old credit card. THIS old credit card has yet another final four digit number, it's even older than the old one that a TfL member must have put in 'my' Tfl account when they refunded me the fair back in March 2019 and which I deleted last time I logged on, in order to register my current credit card for a refund. But... HOW? I didn't even register my own last CC, still less the one before that. I have never travelled on London Transport using a contactless credit card (not deliberately), the ONLY CC I have ever registered online with TfL myself is my current one, I have used an age related Freedom Pass (Specialised Oyster card) since before any of these cards were even in my possession. And when, decades ago now, I was commuting to work it was a normal (unregistered) Oyster card - Contactless wasn't even a thing other than for Oyster cards at that time...

If anyone remains puzzled by this: viewtopic.php?p=568489#p568489 - Think on!

[didds]

so between the 1st and second time of ;logging on, somebody/something has added another CC that wasn't there initially (1st time) or your real current Cc ?

cue twilight zone music.

[XFool]

so between the 1st and second time of ;logging on, somebody/something has added another CC that wasn't there initially (1st time) or your real current Cc ?

cue twilight zone music.

Not quite. I have had to, against my wishes, register my current CC (for a refund) in 'my' existing online account, which was never set up my me. First time I logged on to 'my' existing online account I noticed an old credit card had been registered in 'my' account (presumably by whoever set up the account in the first place). It is out of date so I removed it (???). When logging on this last time I noticed a seemingly even older credit card was registered - one older than the old credit card I remember (or think I do - I no longer know!) removing last time. And, apparently even older than the credit card that I assume was registered by someone who also set up 'my' online account (presumably a TlF employee)... I have never knowingly registered any card, credit or otherwise on a TfL online account, or even set up an online TfL account.

I am no longer completely sure about anything wrt this matter. I have been using diverse credit cards for around fifty years with no bother* apart from the usual loss or misplacing of a CC. But, starting about three years ago, the 'issues' are all piling up, such that I think I need real time access to the card account to see what is going on.

Meanwhile, I have permanently disabled RFID on my CC and will do so with any future CCs.


* Apart from one curious, temporary glitch relating to being unable to pay for my phone by CC - possibly related to card verification database issues with a dual AMEX/Non AMEX card account. And that original accidental use on TfL in 2019 .

[XFool]

Whew!

Though they still seem, to me, to not quite get this:

"If you travel within 48 hours the refund will count towards your next journey. If you do not travel you will receive your refund in three to five working days."

[XFool]

Yippee! My £6 fare was refunded to my credit card on Wednesday 5th April.

Time to log on to 'my' TfL online account and remove all those credit cards - prior to getting the account removed. I have all the correct log on details written down, so should be easy.

What's this?

! Incorrect details
Check your email address and password and try again

Just like the last time I logged on... But I KNOW these details are correct! Jeez...

It's the Recover Password routine all over again. Seems I need to do this every time I try to log on. If I was continuing with this account, which I'm not, I wouldn't bother recording the password, just use a one time password - use and forget.

OK. 'Reset' password to exactly the existing one I have recorded, log on.
Remove old Expired contactless credit card; remove current contactless credit card. Leave.

Now just need to get TfL to shut this account down.

[didds]

Remove old Expired contactless credit card; remove current contactless credit card. Leave.

Now just need to get TfL to shut this account down.

Id give it a week or so, then log in again... and see if they've resurrected any other CCs first!

[XFool]

...It's an idea.

Presumably would require me to recover the password yet again.

[Mike4]

Has anyone got a Transport for London (TfL) online account? What's your experience?

Yes.

An utterly grim experience trying to use it in any way. It is totally untrustworthy but why should they care when one HAS to use it? There is no alternative.

Its actually one of the (many) reasons I no longer repair boilers for people in London.

[XFool]

...Surely you don't have to use it, or do you? I don't know the situation currently with Oyster cards but, when I was using one, it didn't need to be registered. Now I have an age related Freedom Pass (a species of Oyster card) and these cannot be registered with TfL. So I have no need for a TfL account. Contactless credit cards just 'work' without registration, AFAIK (hence the issue).

I now believe the multiple old credit cards was a misunderstanding by me (not so surprising with all the genuine muddles). There was one old CC registered - from the previous 'accident' in 2019 when the account had been set up by TfL, presumably - that I must not have deleted when I first was able to log on to the account. This time I even looked in "My Hidden Cards", whatever that's about.

As to the incorrect passwords, again it is possible it was my mistake after I recovered a password the first time and logged on with it that in the confusion I recorded it wrongly for next time. But the last (third) time? Surely not? It seems unlikely to me. The only other explanation I can come up with is that by TfL 'using'(?) the account to refund my CC somehow it cancels the user password requiring a user reset.

[didds]

...Surely you don't have to use it, or do you?

I think you've answered you own question

Your own experience showing that indeed you don't HAVE to use one - but one may well exist without your knowledge, containing details of cards that you may not wish to have stored on 2nd or 3rd party's systems.

This has just now made me realise that maybe _I_ have such an account as I have definitely used a debit card on a London Bus in the last few years to "tap in" on my extremely infrequent visits to Greater London (Sunbury to Twickenham at most once or twice each spring!), though the alst one was IIRC before lockdown. I wouldn't have a clue how to check though as I wont have ever provided / linked the DCs to an email address - or any other defining credential/account "name" (Im sure Xfool thought this also initially!). Unless the credential is my name somehow - but if it were John Smith how on earth would that ever be specific enough to find?

UPDATE: Ive asked for password reminders for my two email accounts I have. Nothing returned so if I DID have a TFL account its not connected to either of them. But I have deffo used a debit card on TfL services in the past 6 years or so!

[XFool]

This has just now made me realise that maybe _I_ have such an account as I have definitely used a debit card on a London Bus in the last few years to "tap in" on my extremely infrequent visits to Greater London (Sunbury to Twickenham at most once or twice each spring!), though the alst one was IIRC before lockdown. I wouldn't have a clue how to check though as I wont have ever provided / linked the DCs to an email address - or any other defining credential/account "name" (Im sure Xfool thought this also initially!). Unless the credential is my name somehow - but if it were John Smith how on earth would that ever be specific enough to find?

I doubt you have an account just through using a contactless card on TfL. Mine presumably came about three years ago after I accidentally used my credit card instead of my Freedom Pass and I applied to TfL via email to have the money refunded to my credit card. I think the account was then set up by TfL with my details and my credit card registered in it as the mechanism of repayment. I cannot see any other reason for the account existing.

As this was done by TfL I had no idea about the existence of the account. Following a recent repetition of my credit card being used in error I applied again by email to TfL for a refund. They must have seen there was an existing account in my name - which I knew nothing about - and told me to register my current credit card in it for the refund. But as I didn't need a TfL account and didn't even know I had one...

[didds]

gotcha!

[chas49]

From the TFL website: (https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/privacy-an ... his-page-3)

You should email DPO@tfl.gov.uk if you have a concern about the accuracy of personal information we hold about you, if you want us to erase or restrict use of your personal information, if you object to use of your personal data or if you wish to exercise rights in relation to automated decision making.

(my bold)

That should get them to delete your account and any other information.

[XFool]

...So I eventually got my £6 back. Hooray! That just leaves the remaining chargeback issues on my CC to sort out.

I logged on to 'my' TfL online account and deleted my credit cards from it. Then I emailed TfL asking them to delete my online TfL account. Got the usual acknowledgement email. Today I received the actual reply to my request from TfL:

27 April 2023

Dear XFool

Thank you for your call/email/feedback form of 24 April about your refund query.

I'll be happy to look into this for you. Please register your payment card to the Transport for London website so that I can see your journey history.

You can register your payment card by clicking here to create an account with us and add your contactless card. You'll be able to see your journey and payment history for the previous twelve months. You'll also be able to apply for refunds for incomplete and delayed journeys.

Arrrraaagggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!


"You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!""

[XFool]

From the TFL website: (https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/privacy-an ... his-page-3)

You should email DPO@tfl.gov.uk if you have a concern about the accuracy of personal information we hold about you, if you want us to erase or restrict use of your personal information, if you object to use of your personal data or if you wish to exercise rights in relation to automated decision making.

(my bold)
That should get them to delete your account and any other information.

One last desperate throw of the dice?

[Dicky99]

If all else fails you could move house, change your name by deed poll and get a new bank account