No Signal = No Fare

[silverbullet]

Furthermore, erm... I'm somewhat intrigued as to why you are assuming whatever devices are approved by NTA will depend on Internet. Aer Lingus can take card payments way up above the clouds with no internet access.

Why didn't you think of Leap cards when you were lobbying for cashless payments. An excellent idea put forward on another thread by our own Watty. Shame your gob was a dozen paces ahead of your brain...

At present, credit cards are swiped via wireless handhelds on aircraft but the transactions are processed when the aircraft gets on the ground. Because of this billing mechanism – which sometimes results in fraudulent transactions – there is a ceiling of the value of items that can be comfortably sold today.
The article goes on to mention that some companies were then beginning to offer real time in-flight card authorizations, but I do recall seeing a maximum purchase limitation on a recent transatlantic flight.

I don't think there is as much fraud risk as there might have been at one time. Think about the identification requirements to board a flight, especially the longhaul flights which sell duty free merchandise.

[Rat Catcher]

As you suggest, the airlines have some comeback. In fact, you may recall at least one lady telling Joe Duffy how Ryanair wouldn't let her board a flight until she reimbursed them for a chargeback she initiated on foot of a flight cancelled on account of COVID '19 anall with Ryanair trying to fob her off with vouchers and/or an extremely long wait for a refund.

It works pretty much the same way for the dispatch firms in our trade. Prior to the introduction of the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) regime Free Now's policy was simply to not allow further use of a card with a balance owing due to being previously declined. In this post-SCA era the firm places a hold on it's estimate of the fare with any required cardholder approval ascertained in advance.

[Rat Catcher]

I never mentioned Leap cards as a taxi payment solution.

Leap card?

Anyways, with the Leap card, you pay upfront when you get on the bus.  So the machine checks that you have enough money before you get on the bus.  You pay at the end of the journey in a taxi and it's very difficult to predict the final price.  So hard to check if the Leap card has enough funds on it until it's potentially too late.

While I appreciate your modesty, you make a strong case for utililising the Leap system to facilitate cashless payments in taxis. Obviously, all cards whether prepaid, debit or credit require sufficient funds. Whether such funds are available or not can be ascertained in advance if required regardless of the card type but (as you allude to) is considerably easier to do with Leap than might the case for initiating holds on funds for bank cards.

Whether you intended to make the point or not ought not detract from the value of your contribution and, indeed, underlines the benefit often obtainable through inclusive discussion. As I'm sure was to the fore of your thought process, the use of Leap cards would eliminate the possibility of chargebacks whether through fraudulent use or otherwise as Leap's T&Cs clearly exclude any such protection. Linking of Leap cards to bank cards (at some juncture) could be looked at to further ease the topup process for users but (as you previously stressed) the onus for topping up would remain with the client and the system operated by the driver would replicate that in place at train stations, Luas stops, etc i.e. it would not be dependent on external real time processing.

In essence, Leap would provide a 100% available cashless payment method for clients and afford the driver levels of protection hitherto only available to the big dispatch firms. It's just a shame you didn't suggest it before the erm waded in with his size 16s.