It must be a generational thing. I grew up in an era when people actually made calls from 'phone boxes. How often have I ever forgotten my 'phone? - many times. How often have I forgotten my wallet? - never.
1 Like
This and online/app payments. Itās much easier to just use Apple Pay to process the payment than sign in with PayPal or enter by card details.
2 Likes
But thatās the thing, my wallet was on me. I only forgot my Monzo card cause I had to take it out of my wallet the day before, to use it in the underground.
Goes without saying that Iām indeed one of these sad persons checking their phone every two seconds. Which I guess has its pros as itās more difficult to loose it.
1 Like
My wallet dropped out my pocket in the mum in laws car this morning, didnāt realise until later when I got off the tube half way across the other side of London and she called me to say she found my wallet. I canāt go back or else I miss a day of work.
I have no cash, and no cards, just a phone and an oyster card and a laptop.
If Monzo supported Apple Pay there wouldnāt be a problem here.
But for now, transfer funds to a legacy bank to use apple pay - would be nice to stay with the preferred team.
Mishaps happen, Apple Pay comes to the rescue.
(if I had an android device, i would be alright, but i donāt)
ā¦and if Oyster card could be used like a bank card to pay for other things and not just transport! Unlike a phone where the battery goes flat, Oyster just keeps going 
2 Likes
Pretty sure they want to get rid of Oyster in the mid-term futureā¦
2 Likes
When Oyster first came out I was really hoping it could be used as a cash card at small retailers. With auto top up it would have been really useful. 
1 Like
I think the octopus card in HK 
is like that 
3 Likes
Absolutely. They plug contactless all the time, but hardly ever mention Oyster
It is more cost effective to not support expensive ticket and oyster issuing machines & software. After all TfL is all about cutting costs while increasing price of travelā¦ grumble, grumble, grumble
1 Like
That would be amazing lol, but i think Monzo will get apple pay, the Koreaās will unite then hell will freeze over before thatāll happen 
2 Likes
Surely an Oyster card that could pay for other things in addition to just travel isā¦ a debit card?
If you carry a phone and an Oyster, why not carry a phone and a debit card?
4 Likes
Thankfully it canāt be. Systems that allow that like Octopus and Suica can only be topped up with cash. Thus, it would have been a major step backwards for a cash free society.
2 Likes
That makes so much sense that it is what I now do. I cancelled my Oyster card last year (and made a Ā£2 profit 
). I now use a cash back credit card for TfL and carry Monzo as a spare card (and for very rare ATM withdrawals) - I also have two other cards which I never carry with me on Apple Pay.
I suspect Octopus was born out of necessity for Hong Kongās public transport system for cashless contactless payments. It has slowly developed into a cashless payment system firstly at vending machines, now just about everywhere in Hong Kong. It has been around at least 20 years. The banks took a long time to catch up with contactless. Of course TfL came in much later and with more restricted use. I see cashless payments settling down into 2 or 3 major players - will Apple pay be one of them? Maybe but only as the front face of a banking system. Hong Kong is a good example because when cash was king there were three banks issuing banknotes.
Other than the obvious point of convenience, itās the lack of firm updates.
After being completely sold on the āBank of the Futureā Iāve moved all my DDās and salary payments to my Monzo current account.
Both my legacy bank and starling offer Apple Pay right now, as an end customer, I couldnāt really care less about the speculative reasons for delays, the fact is, I can open an account with Starling tomorrow and get these features. With Monzo, I donāt have any idea when this might beā¦
It just feels like the pace of development is rather slow - how long is it before legacy banks catch up with the current Monzo feature set?
5 Likes
As opposed to the UK where eight banks issue Pound Sterling banknotes (bank of england, royal bank of scotland, bank of scotland, clydesdale bank, danske bank (formerly northern bank), first trust, ulster bank, bank of ireland)
That might have been the case 10-15 years ago, but when I visited HK 3 years ago I used normal oyster-style machines to top up my octopus and it accepted all kinds of cards just fine.
1 Like
Really? I was in HK last year and all the Octopus machines I used were cash-only.
You could have automatic top ups from Hong Kong bank accounts and there were machines that topped up from debit/credit cards definitely at the MTR stations and that was more than 10 years ago.