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Have you noticed that TfL doesn’t charge you for contactless payments straight away, but instead takes the money from your bank account at 4am each night? Ever wondered why?
In fact, TfL charges everyone after 4am each day so that the whole day can be applied as a single transaction. This is so daily caps can be applied. Usually, travellers using pay-as-you-go contactless will be charged 10p at the time of tapping in as a first-use fee, their bank then provides your account with credit for travel for the whole day. It’s not until the end of the day (after 4am) that all the trips will be totted up to a total, and then your account will be charged.
According to the TfL website, ‘A daily cap is calculated over 24 hours for pay as you go journeys that start at 4.30am and end on 4.29am the next day’.
How much is the TfL daily cap?
The price of a daily cap depends on where you are travelling to and from. The daily cap for adults travelling in Zone 1 and Zone 2 is £8.50 (although this will rise to £8.90 in March 2025). For Zones 1-3 it’s £10, rising to £10.50 in March. Zone 1-4’s daily cap is £12.30, rising to £12.80 from March.
You can compare different caps and fares on the TfL website. And want to know more about the TfL fare increases in March 2025? Here’s why and by how much.
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