Curious how does payment get processed when paying on debit card on trains in uk?

Question

HI,

IM CURIOUS HOW DOES PAYMENT GET PROCESSED WHEN PAYING ON DEBIT CARD ON TRAINS IN UK, IF ITS CHIP AND PIN THANKS WOULD GREATLY APPERICATE ANSWERS AND IS THERE ANY WAY THE PERSON CAN GET MY DETAILS

Answer 1

Different companies have what are called 'house limits'.

As an example, lets say 'Tomato Railways' have a limit of £50.
You buy a ticket onboard for less than £50 the info is stored and the ticket sold.
Your ticket is £60, the guard will ring and give your details to someone who'll give them an authorisation code.

Most house limits are over £50.

The vast majority of railway companies will NOT allow discounted tickets to be bought on the train, and some will penalty fare you by a minimum of £20 if you don't buy before you board.
In practice, this means that you get charged double the fare (or a minimum £20) from where you've boarded (if ticket facilities are available) to the next stop for the train. Then you can be sold a full standard single fare from there to your destination unless you choose to get off and buy a ticket.
So, as an example, you could get a train from a manned station, charged £20 to the next stop five minutes away, sold a single to your destination, then you need to buy a single back.

Answer 2

It is chip and pin authorised. I'm not sure exactly how it works but I would presume your PIN is encrypted onto the card and the terminal does a challenge/response using the PIN you entered. If all is ok an authorisation code is generated, then the ticket is issued. The data is then sent to the bank when the machine data is downloaded at the end of the day. As the transaction has an authorisation code then any fraud liability has passed to the bank. The higher fraud risk from this type of transaction would mean the train company would pay more in 'handling fees' to the bank

Solo and Electron cards have to be authorised by the bank for each transaction, and so can not be used on board the train

Answer 3

It can't be chip and pin as the conductor does not have his machine plugged into a telephone line (which is necessary to connect to the card supplier).