tfl journey history not working

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TFL Oyster App issues - London Forum

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I use the TFL Oyster app to top up and manage our payment cards - but there’s been a problem including amounts of credit not showing since November 2021.

I emailed TFL in December and eventually received a response, on the 16th, thus;

“ Thanks for contacting us on 10 December about the Oyster journey history/balance not appearing correctly when using the Oyster app.

We are aware of an issue which impacts the accuracy of the journey history and/or Oyster balance when viewing via the Oyster app.

Please bear with us while we work on a fix. I can appreciate the app is much more convenient to use when checking your journeys and balance, however you may wish to use the desktop version of your account in the meantime to check in the meantime.”

I’ve asked for an update but there’s nothing forthcoming.

Anyone else on here having problems with it or does anyone know anything further about it?

I know I can use a browser as already suggested by TFL but it’s far less convenient. I know there’s been the holidays but it seems crazy to me that TFL haven’t fixed this yet.

One thing I noticed back in September is that tapping out at a couple of overground stations took a couple of hours to update.

It took TFL years to develop an app. I'm not surprised months have passed and they haven't corrected a bug.

Why do you us "apps" if you want pay as you go. Just use an oyster card and top up at station ticket machines when necessary.

This sounds like another reason to forget Oyster and tap in and out with a bank card.

Still need Oyster as its got my Senior Railcard discount loaded onto it

“This sounds like another reason to forget Oyster and tap in and out with a bank card.”

I prefer not to wave bank cards around with the increased risk of loss or theft.

“ Why do you us "apps" if you want pay as you go. Just use an oyster card and top up at station ticket machines when necessary.”

I can top up our cards away from the station and it saves time. No queuing or messing at the machines or getting bank cards out.

I can quickly check how much credit is on the cards.

I can check for any incomplete journeys and so on.

Tfl provided the app for those sorts of reasons. It worked well. They should fix it. Promptly.

The app now seems to be working again thankfully - it's showing balance and journey history again.

Why do you have to use "apps"? Just use an oyster card. I'm tired of waiting at tube barriers while people fiddle with phones.

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity.

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Oyster Fares Central

Journey History and Queries

Journey history has improved beyond all recognition since the early days of the Oyster system.  As long as your Oyster or zip card is registered to a TfL account you can view details of journeys and topups for the last eight weeks. This is available through the TfL website and also using the TfL Oyster app.  More details for Oyster follow, but first an overview of the history for contactless.

Contactless Journey History (and how to query a journey)

Unlike Oyster, contactless journey history remains accessible for a year.  This is because it provides the detail justifying debits on your bank or credit card account.  There are two views available.  One is Payment History which displays the journeys making up a particular debit.  This won’t change if extra information arrives, like a late touch or a confirmation of a missed touch.  Instead, the new information will make up a new entry for the day any adjustment was processed and sent to your bank.  The other is Journey History which displays the journeys made during each day.  This will change if late information becomes available.  On both displays you have the ability to query a particular journey, though it’s not obvious at first.  TfL have kindly provided some screenshots to explain how to do this.

The first screen shows the overview for the selected card.  Note that identifying information has been hidden.  You need to click the button highlighted in red.  There is a button to contact TfL about the card, but this won’t pass the details of a specific journey.

Next you come through to the journey statement.  Note the tabs to switch between payment and journey view.  For any journey you can click on the detail line as shown in red below.  Don’t click on the date heading as that just hides the individual journeys for that day.

This brings you through to more detail about the journey, including all touches (yellow and pink readers).  Crucially underneath the detail is a button to bring up a form to contact TfL about that specific journey.  Again it’s highlighted in red.

The form confirms the journey and gives you a text box to make any comments.  You can use this to add information about a missing touch (if the normal form doesn’t work) or to explain why you think the charge is wrong.  Most importantly, do NOT enter your payment card details in the box.  TfL already have them if they are needed.

Oyster Journey History

Oyster journey history looks similar to the contactless views above, although there is only one view.  When you select journey history from the overview you have a drop down menu to choose the period to display.  The default is the last seven days, with options for the previous 8 weeks ending on a Sunday or a custom selection. The history is displayed below the drop down.  As well as journeys you will also see topups and any refunds picked up.  For rail journeys you can click on the ‘+’ sign to expand and show all touches that make up the journey.  An example view is below, noting that the prices relate to a zip 16+ Oyster card.

Oyster statement sent by email

There is also a facility to have weekly or monthly Oyster statements sent automatically by email. Sadly this doesn’t exist for contactless.  In the right hand menu select “Card preferences” and you can choose the frequency between weekly, monthly or never.  You can also choose to receive CSV or PDF formats, or both.

34 thoughts on “Journey History and Queries”

Hi Mike, Is there still an option to receive a Oyster print out at tube stations? Thanks Kim

Sadly not. I believe it can still be done at the National Rail stations which perform Oyster transactions in the ticket office.

My Oyster card always says “You have 0 incomplete journey(s) eligible for refund.”, even if I do have an incomplete journey.

Is this feature for Contactless only – and if so, why does it display that message in the Oyster card page?

No, it’s for Oyster. Not all incomplete journeys are eligible for a refund without contacting the helpdesk.

Can anyone tell me how soon my Oystercard journey history will appear? I used my card today but my outward journey failed to register the touch in and I was charged maximum fair.

Hi Veronica,

It will appear tomorrow morning. If you made identical outward and return journeys there is a chance that they may auto complete the missing touch and queue a refund automatically. Otherwise you can let them know tomorrow.

Last Friday afternoon, I travelled using my Oyster PAYG (with a Gold Card added) from Orpington NR to Charing Cross NR, took a bus (the bus journey triggering the expected auto top up) and later the same day went on the Tube from South Kensington to Embankment and then immediately on to Charing Cross NR to return to Orpington NR. My online Oyster journey history is fine, showing all the expected touches and fares, but for the return journey my Oyster app journey history shows only the South Kensington, Embankment and Orpington touches (skipping the touch at Charing Cross NR) and shows a fare of £1.60 rather than the correct £3.70. The app shows a total daily spend of £5.80 and the online version shows the (correct) daily spend of £7.90 – the £2.10 discrepancy is the difference between the fare shown on the app and what I have been correctly charged. Bizarrely, my PAYG balance as shown online and in the app are both correct and reflect that the correct fare has been charged. Any idea why the two versions are out of step?

I’ve no idea. I’d be interested to know what the helpdesk say. Both Oyster online and the app should be accessing the same online database, as far as I know.

Hello again Mike

I reported the problem of the mismatch between journey histories to the helpdesk and their reply is set out below (it goes on a bit!). I didn’t to resort to the solution the helpdesk suggested – the app history magically updated itself over the last couple of days to bring it into line with the Oyster Online history, without me doing anything.

“Thank you for your web form submission of 24 June regarding the mismatching information between your Transport for London (TfL) account and the TfL App.

I apologise for any confusion and inconvenience resulting from these circumstances and appreciate you taking the time to bring them to our attention.

The TfL App is essentially an extension of your online TfL account, rather than a wholly independent system with a separate set of records. Under normal circumstances, once your online TfL account is updated to reflect the latest travel records, these are then pushed to the TfL App as well for you to have remote access.

On occasion, data may only partially be pushed to the TfL App resulting in the inconsistencies you’ve witnessed. This is usually automatically corrected by our system within a couple of days as soon as the next update is pushed through and the older data replaced.

As you’ve clearly seen directly though, the mismatching information does not necessarily mean that an overcharge/undercharge has in fact occurred. Should this occur anew, it is recommended to fully sign out of the TfL App, restart your smartphone and then sign back in. This should trigger our App to retrieve the records once more overwriting any older one.

If for whatever reason your records are still not being displayed properly on, please respond to this email at your earliest convenience to advise us of this. It would also be of great help if you could provide the following information:

The make and model of smartphone you’re using

The operating system currently installed on it – including the version number (found under your smartphone’s settings)

The version of the TfL App you’re using

Screenshots (if possible) of your travel records as displayed on your smartphone

We’ll then proceed to investigate in more depth to determine why information is not being displayed consistently across the two sets of records”.

Thanks for the update, very interesting.

Hello Mike,

Here is a good one:

Last week I travelled from Queens Road Peckham (overground service) to Goldhawk Road vía Whitechapel (Hammersmith line) making sure I touched on the pink card reader when interchanging. I used my contactless card for this journey.

I travelled from zone 2 to zone 2 crossing zone 1 using TfL services, so I thought I would be charged £2.40/2.90 for this journey.

I have been charged £4.

If I search this journey on the fare finder I got the same fare of £4. But if for example, I try to finish my journey at the previous station which is in the same zone 2 (Shepherd’s Bush Market) I got the usual fare between zone1-2 which is £2.40/2.90.

How is this possible?

I’d contact the helpdesk and ask them to explain. The £4 fare assumes you start by taking a Southern train to London Bridge. This incurs the mixed mode premium hence the high fare. They seem to think you wouldn’t go the long way round to Goldhawk Road.

Hi I took a journey on 2nd July from London City Airport to Paddington and as I had plenty of time I took a very convoluted route. I used Apple Pay and went as follows: – DLR to Bank – Northern to Moorgate – Circle to Farringdon – Thameslink to Blackfriars – Circle to Paddington There are 2 things I don’t understand: – Although I touched in and out everywhere, it shows as an automatically completed journey on my TFL account with the following comment: o To offset any travel disruption you may have experienced, we’ve charged you the minimum fare for this journey. Normally this would have resulted in a higher fare being charged. – The charge was £4:30. Should it not be £2:80? My TFL account shows: 13:08 London City Airport (yellow reader) 13:45 Moorgate (yellow) 13:46 Moorgate (yellow) 13:58 Blackfriars (National Rail) (yellow) 14:00 Blackfriars (London Underground) (pink – although this was at the entrance to the tube and was actually yellow!) 14:30 Paddington (London Underground) (yellow) Do you think this is correct or perhaps I just broke the system?!

I think you might have hit a problem with the temporary arrangements at Moorgate. It’s certainly had trouble working out what journey you were making. You’ve been charged as if you’d gone via Woolwich Arsenal. I think it might have tried to charge you two journeys, hence the comment about a higher fare. You could try contacting the helpdesk via the link at the bottom of the page listing all the touches.

Last Saturday (29th June) I tapped in at Chiswick & caught a train to Waterloo. Due to a trespasser on the track at Putney we were held at Barnes Bridge for 90 minutes. When I eventually tapped out at Waterloo I got 2 £5.60 penalty fares. My journey history shows the system is assuming I failed to tap out from my journey from Chiswick and then failed to tap in on a journey to Waterloo. Understandable given the times I tapped in and out, but my Oster account says I have no incomplete journeys eligible for refund so I can’t apply for a refund on-line & I only have a PAYG mobile so it would cost more than the penalty fare to call them. I won’t be at a tube station until next Thursday, so I assume I can get one of the tube staff to refund both penalties then? I did get a Delay Repay refund from SWT so that’s something.

The tube staff may be able to process the refund, but I’m not 100% sure. The helpdesk is a standard rate number these days so it would take quite a while to rack up the value of two maximum charges minus the correct fare. Or could you borrow a phone with included minutes from someone?

Thanks, but the last time I called them cost me all my credit just whilst I was waiting for someone to answer. I’ll try at a tube station and see how it goes. Why does it not show that I have any eligible incomplete journeys when my journey history shows a journey that I didn’t tap out from & one I didn’t tap in for – as they see it.

I don’t know, but I imagine it’s to do with the fact that with two incomplete journeys you may be looking at combining them into one, and that may have been defined as beyond the scope of the online form.

Hi Mike, I intend to travel from New Malden to Central London on Thursday. As I need to make several stops on the way (Covent Garden, Waterloo, Clerkenwell, Liverpool Street, St Pancras to name a few), would the overall cost of my journey be capped at £10.10 irregardless of whether I use the train for the whole of my journey, or the bus for part of it.

Yes, buses count towards the daily cap.

A couple of weeks ago I used my Oyster card, touched in at Denmark Hill, out at Blackfriars to continue home on Thameslink with my paper ticket. At Blackfriars I checked the display as the exit barrier opened, it recorded the right fare and balance. But a couple of days later I got my Oyster journey history statement which showed an unresolved journey. It is very worrying that these displays don’t show the actual balance. My wife was doing the same journey, used a different barrier at Blackfriars, and it also showed the right balance but failed to contact the Oyster central database so she also had to claim for a refund. We had to this by phone because, for some reason, the online system did not allow us to use this facility.

There was obviously a fault in the barriers at Blackfriars. We have now got refunds, but TfL blame GTR for the problem and vice-versa. I shall refer this to London TravelWatch if I don’t get someone to explain the fault and take responsibility. From now on I shall check by Oyster balance every day that I use it, and recommend everyone else to do the same. It is a most untrustworthy system. The idea of using a bank card for contactless payment horrifies me.

Sorry to hear about your issues. From what you’ve described there seems to have been a communications problem between Blackfriars NR and the central Oyster system. These do happen occasionally. I’m somewhat surprised that it hadn’t rectified itself by two days later as Blackfriars is a very busy station and it must have been causing lots of issues. The fault seems clearly to be the responsibility of GTR, although I’m not sure I’d go so far as to blame them. I have however alerted people in both GTR and TfL to see whether the blame ping-pong is appropriate.

Checking your travel history daily is a very good suggestion anyway, and one that I’d always recommend. I don’t agree that the system is untrustworthy, but when the occasional issue occurs it is important for the problem to be owned and resolved.

Hi. Is there any way to obtain your Oyster card travel history beyond 8 weeks at all? I would need it for employment reimbursement for the tax year beginning April 2019. thanks, Karolina

Hi Karolina,

I’m afraid there is not. Going forward you can set up monthly emails on your TfL account, or if contactless is an option (full adult fares only) the history then stays online for a year. This is because it is justification for debits from your bank or card account.

Unsure whether this is a problem linked to the 60+ Oyster which I have but over the last few months a journey starting after midnight in this case after midnight on the 31st October is shown as occurring on the 1st December. Although this is not a problem on a 60+ Oyster if the same thing is happening on a normal oyster it could cause charging problems. I copy the details from my latest weekly read out.

Date / Time

Journey / Action

Sunday, 01 December 2019 £0.00 daily total 00:20 Bus journey, route U5 £0.00 £0.00

Sunday, 03 November 2019 £0.00 daily total 23:59 Bus journey, route U5 £0.00 £0.00 22:09 Bus journey, route U5 £0.00 £0.00

Saturday, 02 November 2019 £0.00 daily total 00:39 Bus journey, route 350 £0.00 £0.00 21:43 Bus journey, route 350 £0.00 £0.00 14:16 – 14:46 Paddington [National Rail] to West Drayton [National Rail] £0.00 £0.00

13:21 – 13:55 Chancery Lane to Paddington (Bakerloo, Circle/District and H&C) £0.00 £0.00

13:12 Bus journey, route 17 £0.00 £0.00 12:16 Bus journey, route 63 £0.00 £0.00 11:21 – 12:07 Elstree and Borehamwood [National Rail] to Farringdon £0.00 £0.00

09:15 – 10:15 Paddington (Bakerloo, Circle/District and H&C) to Elstree and Borehamwood [National Rail] £0.00 £0.00

08:47 – 09:14 West Drayton [National Rail] to Paddington [National Rail] £0.00 £0.00

Friday, 01 November 2019 £0.00 daily total 01:29 Bus journey, route N222 £0.00 £0.00 00:08 Bus journey, route 222 £0.00 £0.00 Thursday, 31 October 2019 £0.00 daily total 21:54 Bus journey, route 222 £0.00 £0.00

Hi Malcolm,

It didn’t happen on 1st November, have there been other occurrances and is it always 1st December? I’ll pass the details over to TfL anyway.

It has certainly been happening all this year all involve bus journeys. On the months missing it is because the return journey was made prior to midnight examples are

Out 31st December 21:43 return showing as 31st January 00:38 Out 31st March 21:34 return showing as 1st May 00:13 Out 30th April 20:34 return showing as 30th May 00:20 Out 31st May 22:00 return showing as 1st July 00:59 Out 31st August 21:19 return showing 1st October 00:40

Still happening on journeys after midnight

Monday, 30 December 2019 £0.00 daily total 00:37 Bus journey, route 350 £0.00 £0.00

Saturday, 30 November 2019 £0.00 daily total 21:16 Bus journey, route 350 £0.00 £0.00

Thanks for this, I’ll pass it over. I can actually see a pattern here, it’s when the journey is made after midnight on the 1st day of a new month.

Please can you provide details of the bus route involved in your other late night journeys.

is it possible to get a printout of the cost when I used oyster to travel on the 18th Sept 2019?

Sorry, that’s too far away. Oyster travel data is anonymised after 8 weeks in line with the agreed fair use of data.

The bus routes involved will be either 222, 350, U1, U3 or U5 to return home. So either operated by Metroline West or Abelio West London.

Thanks Malcolm,

The info has been passed on to the team investigating.

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TFL Oyster App issues - London Forum

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I use the TFL Oyster app to top up and manage our payment cards - but there’s been a problem including amounts of credit not showing since November 2021.

I emailed TFL in December and eventually received a response, on the 16th, thus;

“ Thanks for contacting us on 10 December about the Oyster journey history/balance not appearing correctly when using the Oyster app.

We are aware of an issue which impacts the accuracy of the journey history and/or Oyster balance when viewing via the Oyster app.

Please bear with us while we work on a fix. I can appreciate the app is much more convenient to use when checking your journeys and balance, however you may wish to use the desktop version of your account in the meantime to check in the meantime.”

I’ve asked for an update but there’s nothing forthcoming.

Anyone else on here having problems with it or does anyone know anything further about it?

I know I can use a browser as already suggested by TFL but it’s far less convenient. I know there’s been the holidays but it seems crazy to me that TFL haven’t fixed this yet.

One thing I noticed back in September is that tapping out at a couple of overground stations took a couple of hours to update.

It took TFL years to develop an app. I'm not surprised months have passed and they haven't corrected a bug.

Why do you us "apps" if you want pay as you go. Just use an oyster card and top up at station ticket machines when necessary.

This sounds like another reason to forget Oyster and tap in and out with a bank card.

Still need Oyster as its got my Senior Railcard discount loaded onto it

“This sounds like another reason to forget Oyster and tap in and out with a bank card.”

I prefer not to wave bank cards around with the increased risk of loss or theft.

“ Why do you us "apps" if you want pay as you go. Just use an oyster card and top up at station ticket machines when necessary.”

I can top up our cards away from the station and it saves time. No queuing or messing at the machines or getting bank cards out.

I can quickly check how much credit is on the cards.

I can check for any incomplete journeys and so on.

Tfl provided the app for those sorts of reasons. It worked well. They should fix it. Promptly.

The app now seems to be working again thankfully - it's showing balance and journey history again.

Why do you have to use "apps"? Just use an oyster card. I'm tired of waiting at tube barriers while people fiddle with phones.

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity.

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TfL mobile app now displays journey history and payments on the go

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Posted: 21 June 2018 | Intelligent Transport | No comments yet

Customers using contactless payment cards across London can now conveniently view their journey history and check or top-up payments on the go…

Customers using contactless payment cards in London can now view their journey history on the go following the latest update to the free Transport for London (TfL) Oyster and contactless app .

Half of all Tube and rail pay-as-you-go journeys in London are made using contactless payment cards or mobile devices. More than 17 million pay-as-you-go journeys a week are made across public transport services; providing value for money, flexibility and convenience.

The success of contactless payment in London is leading more cities to introduce the technology as a convenient method of paying for travel.

Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer at Transport for London, said: “We’re delighted that so many Londoners have already downloaded our app, making it easier to check journey history and top-up on the go. This latest update follows feedback from customers and is part of our work to make travelling in London simple and convenient for everyone.”

TfL has updated the free app – available to download from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store – to enable customers to view their journey and payment history and see if they have any ‘incomplete’ journeys. Customers can use their smartphone to quickly add pay-as-you-go credit or season tickets to their Oyster card.

Since the app launched in September 2017, more than 800,000 downloads have been made.

Customers can add their contactless payment card to an online account, personalise cards or devices and hide features that are not required. New features on the app illustrate updated maps and design changes to improve the customer experience.

Chief Executive of London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Colin Stanbridge, said: “We support any improvements to make London’s public transport network easier, cheaper and more attractive to use: in doing so, benefitting commuters, tourists and the economy as a whole. Using contactless cards to travel has made great strides in this area and this update to the app would appear to take these changes a stage further.”

TfL is now working to introduce further improvements to make all the functions of the app available to customers using concessionary cards such as Zip and Student photocards. Future changes are expected to make it easier in requesting refunds.

Related topics Passenger Experience , Ticketing & Payments

Related cities London , United Kingdom

Related organisations Transport for London (TfL)

Related people Colin Stanbridge , Shashi Verma

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Reimbursements

How to Get a Receipt for Contactless TfL Travel

The London transport system is regarded as one of the best urban transport systems in the world. It may not be perfect, but Londoners have it pretty good all things considered. It’s possible to traverse the city with nothing more than a contactless card, which is just about the easiest way to pay as a passenger. Unfortunately, this can make things a little tricky when it comes to getting a valid digital receipt for travel expenses. Luckily it’s possible to get a TfL receipt sent directly to your TfL account.

In this guide, we’ll explain how to get expense receipts for your contactless journeys around London. We’ll also explain some of the other services TfL offers to make your life easier when it comes to managing travel payments.

Using contactless payment for London travel

Whether you’re using underground trains, overground trains or buses, you can pay quickly and easily anywhere in London using contactless payment. When contactless payment was first introduced, customers were limited to Oyster cards. Oyster cards were a game changer which allowed commuters to travel around the city on the TfL network with minimal hassle. But they have one main drawback in the sense that they can’t be used anywhere else.

Since 2014, public transport passengers in London have been able to use their contactless bank cards, as well as cards stored in digital wallets, alongside the standard Oyster card. In fact, the number of passengers using contactless debit or credit cards now outnumbers those using oyster cards.

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Tax rules for employer-provided Oyster cards

HMRC treats Oyster cards that are provided to employees by their employers in effectively the same way as individual travel tickets for business trips. This is because Oyster cards use a top-up system, and are usually the most cost effective and flexible way for individuals to travel on the TfL network.

If the amount of money provided by the employer is not enough to cover necessary business trip costs, the employee can claim a tax deduction on the additional costs they’ve paid out of pocket. You can find more information about the tax rules surrounding Oyster cards on the gov.uk website .

How to get a receipt for contactless TfL travel

Contactless payment for TfL is no doubt hugely popular with passengers. It makes it easier and more convenient to travel around the capital, particularly if you’re in a rush. But there’s one common area of confusion—obtaining a valid receipt for individual TfL journeys.

Firstly, it can be hard to distinguish individual work-related journeys if you have a monthly or yearly subscription. To claim a tax rebate for business travel, you need to be able to supply detailed records of each and every item you’re claiming.

When you mix business travel and personal travel on the same card or payment method, it can be difficult to isolate specific journeys. You can find out more about the rules and regulations surrounding travel expenses in our travel expenses guide .

Secondly, many employers will not accept transaction statements from banking apps as valid proof of a journey when claiming expenses. This is because transactions on banking apps lack most of the additional data that employers need to verify a payment was made for a specific journey.

Instead you’ll need to get a TfL payment receipt, which you can obtain online with a TfL contactless and Oyster account. We’ll explain how to do this below.

Getting a TfL contactless and Oyster account

Having a TfL contactless and Oyster account allows you to perform various actions online, like viewing your purchase history or obtaining refunds for unused credit.

Unless you buy an Oyster card in person at a London underground or overground station, you’ll be asked to set up a TfL contactless and Oyster account when you purchase your Oyster card. Once you’ve opened an account, you’ll be able to add credit to your Oyster card whenever you need.

Alternatively, you can create a TfL contactless and Oyster account without buying an Oyster card. Instead you can simply add a normal contactless debit or credit card to your account and access your transaction records this way.

How to get receipts from your contactless and Oyster account

Go to the TfL website at tfl.gov.uk , and then tap ‘Top up Oyster’ to log in. Tap ‘Sign in’ and enter your details. This will take you to the account overview page where you can select your contactless payment cards or Oyster cards.

If you’ve been using a contactless payment card, select the card you want to view on the left hand side of the screen. (This applies to cards you’ve used physically, as well as cards you’ve used through a digital wallet like Apple Wallet ). 

Select ‘Journey & payment history’ and you’ll be able to filter and view all of TfL your journeys and payments. You can then download a PDF or CSV file of the receipts for journeys you made during the period you’ve selected. You can also view your transactions if you have an Oyster card linked to your account by selecting ‘Oyster cards’ under the ‘My Account’ menu on the right hand side of your account home screen.

Getting receipts and payment history on the Oyster app

Instead of logging in to your contactless and Oyster account in your browser, you can access all the essential account functionality in the TfL Oyster and contactless app. The app displays all of the contactless payment cards you’ve added to your account.

You can select which card you want to use, and then simply tap on the contactless card reader with your phone whenever you want to pass through a barrier at the station. Your can access your payment and journey history for each card directly from the app, and there’s a handy map of the TfL network in case you get lost in the depths of the tube.

How to update your first generation Oyster card

Unfortunately you won’t be able to access any of the functionality of the Oyster app if you have a first generation Oyster card. First generation Oyster cards are not compatible with the app. However, because they were phased out in 2010, this shouldn’t be an issue for the vast majority of users.

If you’re unsure whether you have a first or a second generation oyster card, simply check the back of the card and look for a ‘D’ in the bottom left hand corner. If your card doesn’t have a ‘D’, it’s a first generation Oyster card. You’ll need to exchange it for a new second generation card to use the app.

Don’t worry about losing any credit you had remaining on your old Oyster card. When you buy a new one and register it on your contactless and Oyster account, you’ll be able to transfer the remaining balance. You’ll also get your deposit back as credit on your account.

Paying for TfL travel with cash

Since 2012 London buses have been contactless payment only. But you can still buy overground and underground tickets with cash at ticket offices and certain ticket machines. While this makes it easier to get a receipt (you’ll receive a paper receipt as normal when you pay), you actually end up paying more for your fare than you would if you used contactless payment.

Getting TfL receipts as a London road user

Using public transport isn’t the only time you pay when travelling around London. If you’re a road user, you’ll be familiar with the Congestion Charge and Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) charge. These charges were introduced to ease traffic congestion and emissions in the centre of the city, and they’re unavoidable if you have to drive within a certain area.

In most cases, these charges are not tax-deductible because they don’t meet HMRC’s requirements for employee expenses. However, many employers will reimburse you for additional charges you incur on business trips and other work-related travel. If this is the case, your employer will ask you to provide proof of payment of the charge before they reimburse the expense.

Reimburse with Moss: Give freedom to your team

To get your receipts, payment history and other information, you’ll need to log in to your London road user charging account. The process is very similar to the contactless and Oyster account as mentioned above.

Go to the TfL website at tfl.gov.uk , and then tap ‘Congestion Charge’ and ‘Sign in’. Unlike paying with an Oyster card, you have to set up a London road user charging account to pay the congestion charge or ULEZ charge.

Once you’ve logged in, go to ‘My account’ on the top right of the page. Scroll down and click on ‘Payment history’ on the left side of the screen. Here you’ll be able to search your past payments and download a summary of your receipts on a month-by-month basis as a PDF or CSV file.

Receipts and travel expenses with Moss

Moss’s spend management platform simplifies the employee expense and reimbursement process with a range of different tools for employers and employees. When it comes to managing and storing receipts, travel-related or not, Moss can save you time and effort. Employees can scan their expenses receipts directly into the Moss app, and managers can review and approve expenses on the go. There’s no need to deal with paper receipts or invoices because Moss digitises the entire process.

Employers can provide each employee or department with their own Moss corporate credit card . This can be specifically for travel, general expenses, or any other business related spend. Moss virtual credit cards can be set with custom cash limits, and controlled directly from the Moss app for full visibility over every pound that’s spent. Team members can store their Moss cards in Apple Wallet and spend directly from their phone using Apple Pay.

Then there’s Moss insights , which displays a range of detailed cashflow data. With aggregated data from across all of your linked accounts, you can ensure you’re always on top of outgoing costs and aware of potential expense cost savings.

Yes, you can get receipts for contactless journeys on TfL using a contactless card or an Oyster card. To do so you need to set up a contactless and Oyster account. This allows you view all of your past journeys and payments that you’ve made to TfL.

To set up a contactless and Oyster account, visit the tfl.gov.uk website, click ‘Top up Oyster’ and follow the instructions on screen.

An Oyster card is a contactless card that passengers can use on the TfL transport network. Users can top up their Oyster card at ticket machines around London, or link it to a bank card using a contactless and Oyster account.

Yes. To do so you’ll need to set up a London road user charging account, which you can do on the TfL website .

Yes. Contactless payment is cheaper than buying individual tickets with cash because contactless travel has a fixed cap per day.

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Why does TfL seem to have so many transport problems?

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Commuters in London have faced chaos this month – station closures, tube delays and fire alerts.

This week, a strike by tube staff saw both Pimlico and Russell Square stations shut down and a fire alert closed Balham station earlier this morning.

Planned engineering works also mean no service between Golders Green and Edgware on the Northern Line.

The Bakerloo line will be shut in only a couple weeks time, too – let’s take a look at what’s happening with the TfL system.

Is the Tube outdated?

First created in 1863, it’s no wonder the underground train tracks spread across London need a lot of upkeep.

TfL has been working for years to replace old trains – and are currently working to replace carriages on the Piccadilly Line to keep up with the massive amount of use they get.

The Bakerloo and Central lines have suffered delays and cancellations due to a lack of funding to buy new trains.

In 2022, TfL hashed out a £3,600,000,000 funding deal with the government that would last until March this year. However, the government included several conditions to the budget , including not being able to buy new trains for the Bakerloo and Central lines.

However, the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines have all been updated to have air-conditioned, walk-through trains.

The phrase ‘signal failure’ is a phase all too well known to commuters, though.

TfL says these failures can cause delays ‘because signals are designed to “failsafe” whenever a fault occurs, signals turn to red and trains stop running’.

Transit officials say they are upgrading signalling systems across the network to boost capacity, reliability and frequency. New technology will allow the trains to be driven automatically, with a train operator in a cab opening and closing the doors.

Engineering works

TfL does regular maintenance to improve stations and rail lines to keep up with the constant wear and tear on services.

This means that sometimes stations and lines are shut down temporarily.

TfL says in its list of planned track closures that there will be no service between the two Northern line stations again on several weekends in June and July.

Kentish Town station is closed until late summer 2024 – a date which has already been delayed – as TfL works to replace escalators and improve the station.

Northwest London’s Colindale station will be shut between June and December, for ‘station improvements’.

On April 27 and 28, the Bakerloo line will not be running as they work on track maintenance on the Network Rail section of the tracks just north of Queen’s Park.

The trains on the Bakerloo line are more than 50 years old – and 10 years past their expiration date, but TfL is working to introduce new trains on the line around 2029.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

For more stories like this, check our news page .

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Warning - TfL Oyster App, card balance did not update.

• Thread starter bakerstreet
• Start date 12 Dec 2021
• 12 Dec 2021

bakerstreet

Just to warn any unsuspecting users of the above app. I nearly ran short on credit because my account was showing with a healthy balance when the actual situation was a much much lower balance. The reason is my journey history was last updated on 2 December. (It’s 12 Dec as I write this) I’m still logged in, I’ve refreshed, I’ve checked App Store for update (none available). Thankfully the web version is up to date but even that does appear to have a significant lag. Are there any apps that can read an Oyster card yet like there are ITSO readers. It’s what I rather dislike about electronic cards where as a user you are blind to what the status is. Anyway hope this warning is of use to someone Ps I know I can set auto top up.  

RailUK Forums

That’s interesting because the app is still not refreshing for me. Also I was receiving auto journey history usage PDFs via email but I’ve noticed that my most recent was from 4 October.  

The Journey history has been very hit and miss for a few weeks. I've travelled on the bus and its said there is no journey information for days afterwards....I'm wondering if the change to the way that Oyster works so its the same as Contactless has had an effect  

Established Member

Likewise my hasnt updated since late November !and the same with the weekly Update emails  

Joshua_Harman

Idk About oyster, but my NR (Thameslink Issued) Smartcard has had no journey history shown the last few weeks, nothing...... Thought it was a problem with the card but both my cards seem to be doing it... But as of a few days ago it works fine again, so maybe the issues are linked? Was there a change to the oyster system or something recently?  

• 13 Dec 2021

My TfL app has been telling me my Oyster card has a low balance of £5.60 for 2 years now. My card currently has £30.55 after an auto top up last week and has seen maybe £80 of use in the last 2 years and has never to my knowledge had a balance as low as £5.60 since the day I bought it over a decade ago. I’m guessing, looking at the existence of this thread that the whole thing simply doesn’t work.  

• 14 Dec 2021

robbeech said: My TfL app has been telling me my Oyster card has a low balance of £5.60 for 2 years now. My card currently has £30.55 after an auto top up last week and has seen maybe £80 of use in the last 2 years and has never to my knowledge had a balance as low as £5.60 since the day I bought it over a decade ago. I’m guessing, looking at the existence of this thread that the whole thing simply doesn’t work. Click to expand...

• 16 Dec 2021

Emeritus Moderator

Oyster usage statement mailing issues.

Received this from TfL today on the matter We are aware of an issue which impacts the accuracy of the journey history and/or Oyster balance when viewing via the Oyster app. Please bear with us while we work on a fix. I can appreciate the app is much more convenient to use when checking your journeys and balance, however you may wish to use the desktop version of your account in the meantime to check in the meantime.  

Elecman said: Received this from TfL today on the matter We are aware of an issue which impacts the accuracy of the journey history and/or Oyster balance when viewing via the Oyster app. Please bear with us while we work on a fix. I can appreciate the app is much more convenient to use when checking your journeys and balance, however you may wish to use the desktop version of your account in the meantime to check in the meantime. Click to expand...

• 17 Jan 2022

After several weeks (possibly months) of email silence my auto journey oyster emails seem to have been restored without any intervention on my part. The app will also now always update, but ONLY if I log out and log in again. Not ideal to have to do that but at least it’s sort of working.  

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How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam

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