EE NFC handsets compatible with London buses

UK carrier EE this week enabled its own flavour of NFC, dubbed Cash on Tap, for London’s bus network, allowing customers to use their phone in lieu of an Oyster card or contactless debit card. Users will need an EE handset and an NFC-capable SIM.

The Cash on Tap service launched last year, and is due to be compatible with over 500,000 customers’ handsets by the end of 2014. There will be no added charges for using Cash on Tap to pay for travel, and both daily and weekly caps ensure customers won’t pay more than using an Oyster card. A bus fare costs £1.45 for any single journey, with daily and Monday to Sunday bus fares capped at £4.40 and £20.20 respectively – the same as an Oyster.

The operator is pitching the handset as a way of avoiding ‘card clash’ where users may be billed twice by keeping their Oyster card and NFC bank card in the same wallet and touching both to the reader simultaneously.

Launched in partnership with MasterCard, the Cash on Tap application is available free via the Google Play store and compatible with a range of Android devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One and Sony Xperia Z2. EE customers can already use their phone to pay in the likes of McDonald’s, Caffè Nero, Pret A Manger and Greggs at over 300,000 locations across the country.

Pippa Dunn, Chief Consumer Marketing Officer at EE said: “More people use London’s buses than all the other bus services across the country combined, so the need for speedy and simple payment solutions is paramount.”

Contactless payment on London’s buses is the first step in a wider roll-out across the capital’s transport network, with Cash on Tap payments due to be accepted on the London Underground, DLR and Overground network from September 16.