People can apply for refunds after overcharging TfL cyber attack

People who pay for their train and bus journeys with a phone or contactless bank card can now apply for a refund if they have been overcharged in the wake of the Transport for London cyber attack.

TfL announced on Wednesday that passengers using contactless will also be able to access their online journey history for the first time in three months after the transport authority restricted access to the system while it “carried out important security checks”.

Until a few weeks ago, and since the cyber-attack was identified at the start of September, children aged between 11 and 17, university students and the elderly over 60 had all been unable to apply for new Oyster photo cards – which would have entitle them to a discount on travel.

Applications reopened in stages over the last month, but Londoners who had used their contactless bank card or phone to pay for their journeys in the meantime had been unable to look back at their full travel history if they wanted to understand , how much more they had paid for their trip.

With this journey history now available to view again, TfL is encouraging Londoners who have been overcharged in the meantime to apply for a refund.

For young people and students who were unable to submit an application for a ‘Zip’ card or an 18+ photo card but have now applied for one, a refund will apply for the period between the time they became eligible for the card. to when their new card was sent.

TfL will also refund all journeys for anyone who applied for a 60+ photo card between the date they turned 60 and when their card was sent.

TfL has said it is “in the process of writing to customers who have successfully applied for a new photo card to explain the criteria for refunds and how to apply for them”. The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands that the process will essentially involve contacting TfL’s customer service team and giving them the start and end dates for the period in which they should have received discounted fares.

Passengers who have used a standard Oyster card to pay for their journey as a stopgap measure – rather than a contactless bank card – would not normally be able to see their travel history stretching back more than eight weeks. But TfL told LDRS that Oyster journeys dating back to the start of the cyber incident in September will still be possible to access by calling customer services.

People who are not entitled to a travel discount and have used their contactless card as normal over the past three months will also be able to apply for ‘incomplete travel’ refunds for the first time. These occur when someone taps in or out using a faulty card reader, or simply forgets to tap in or out for a particular journey.

Using their now available online history, these passengers will be able to log in and check if they can apply for a refund from such journeys.

TfL and train operators across London will continue to accept expired 5-10 and 11-15 Zip Oyster photocards, where they are normally valid, in light of the cyber security incident until 31 December.

TfL says this will give “expired Zip photocard holders plenty of time to apply for their new concession photocard”.

But parents and guardians of those with expired Zip photocards have been urged by TfL to apply for a new photocard as soon as possible to ensure they are ready for use in the new year. The Danish Transport Agency has warned that expired photo cards will not be accepted for travel on TfL or the train companies’ services from 1 January.

Shashi Verma, TfL’s chief technology officer, said: “We are delighted that customers can now access their contactless journey history again, which means that all TfL fare services affected by the latest cyber incident have now been reinstated. We apologize for the inconvenience , which this incident has caused our customers.

“We are now able to process contactless and Oyster refunds for those who need them, although customers should expect there may be some delays due to the expected backlog.

“We have also contacted all new photo card customers who were affected by not being able to apply for their new photo card.

“I also want to personally thank our engineers and customer service teams who have worked hard during this incident to support customers and restore services.”