Everything you need to know about using your SWR Touch Smartcard
Contact
If our FAQs below haven’t answered your question, you have some feedback, or your card is lost or stolen, please contact our Contact Centre on 0345 6000 650 or smartcards@swrailway.com
Email smartcards@swrailway.com with the last eight numbers of your SWR smartcard, plus copies of your photocard and current season ticket
Our team will then help load it onto your new Touch Smartcard
We can't transfer your ticket if you bought it from another company. This is due to difficulties experienced with after-sales issues and the processing of refunds.
If you bought your ticket from Abellio Corporate Travel you can also apply for a paper to smartcard swap.
If your smartcard is registered to your online account, you can find details of all your tickets under ‘My bookings’.
You can also use your smartcard to view tickets on ticket machines at our stations (except in the London Travelcard area).
You can also download the free National Rail Smartcard Manager app which allows you to check and load tickets to your smartcard using the NFC reader on your device.
Leaving your smartcard at home is the same as leaving a paper ticket at home − you will need to buy a new ticket for your journey. If you have a Season Ticket loaded onto your smartcard, you may be entitled to a refund of the cost of the paper ticket you had to buy for your journey. Keep hold of the paper ticket and ask at the ticket office about a refund within 28 days of your journey.
What is the difference between an Oyster card and a Touch Smartcard?
Oyster cards are only valid within the London Travelcard area. You can use your Oyster card to either store a ticket (such as a Season Ticket) or to store an amount of money, which you can then use for ‘pay as you go’ travel. The Touch Smartcard can store tickets and be used for Tap2Go pay as you go travel, including journeys on SWR services within the London fare zones.
If you lose your smartcard or it is stolen, you should visit one of our ticket offices, call us on 0345 6000 650 or email us at smartcards@swrailway.com as soon as possible. We will cancel your card so that no-one else can use it. We will then issue a replacement card, which will take up to seven days to arrive if requested to be delivered by post to your home or work address address or your local station to pick up.
You can also get a replacement card direct from one of 80 stations across the South Western Railway network, where the staff can assist and print you a new card whilst you wait.
If you had a Season Ticket loaded onto the lost or stolen smartcard which was still valid for more than one week, we will also arrange for this to be loaded onto your replacement smartcard. If you chose to have your replacement smartcard delivered by post, you will need to buy paper tickets from the station until your replacement smartcard arrives. We may refund the cost of these once you receive your replacement smartcard.
If your smartcard had other tickets stored on it, please call our Customer Services team on 0345 6000 650 to discuss this.
We always advise customers to touch in and touch out on the yellow readers when using their smartcard. If you don’t touch in and touch out, we will not be able to allocate the correct ticket or charge the correct fare.
Smartcard customers can also benefit from Automated Delay Repay, which uses the taps from a customer’s journey. If you have Tap2Go on your smartcard and you have not touched in or touched out, please click here for more information.
Can I view tickets loaded on my smartcard with the app?
Yes. You will need to wait until you are due to renew your Season Ticket and you have received the renewal reminder email. This will enable you to change your payment card details and renew at the same time.
Your auto-renewal is set up for the same journey, and class of travel every month.
If you need to change any part of your Season Ticket journey, you will need to cancel your existing automatic payment and set up a new one when you purchase your new Season Ticket.
Any changes made will affect your free ticket offer and the count will start again when the new changed Season Ticket starts. Any previous tickets bought will be exempt from the offer.
A renewal reminder will be sent as normal allowing you to change the collection station or the start date. Your ticket will then be processed and added to your Touch Smartcard as normal, but your payment card will not be charged.
How can I claim a refund if I don't need my ticket anymore?
You will need to contact our Customer Services team on 0345 6000 650 who will arrange the refund. You will also need to cancel the automatic payment set up in ‘My Account’ unless you want to resume travelling with the same journey the following month.
Any refunds made will affect the free ticket offer and the count will start from the beginning when the next Season Ticket is bought.
If you are unable to touch in or touch out at a station due to a system fault, please log in to your account to complete your journey or you can contact our Customer Service team on 0345 6000 650. We will, where possible, attempt to autocomplete an unfinished journey by checking the previous journey data collected. Where a journey is autocompleted, you will be notified by email. We will autocomplete journeys three times in a 28-day period. Outside of the three in 28 days, we will charge a fee of £25.00 for incomplete journeys and may result in your account being closed.
If I decide not to travel after going through the gates, will I be charged?
If you touch in and decide not to travel, you will need to touch out again within 15 minutes. If you touch in, do not travel, but don’t touch out, then an incomplete journey charge of £25.00 may be applied. If you touch out after 15 minutes of touching in, you may also be liable to pay an incomplete journey charge.
Yes, as you are only charged for the journeys you make. At the end of the day we collect all the journey data and apply the most appropriate fare where you’ve touched in and touched out. Please remember to touch out and back in again when you resume your journey.
How do I change my registered credit or debit card details?
To change your card details, you will need to go to ‘Update Payment Detail’ in the Tap2Go section of your SWR account and pay a £1.00 set up fee. This verifies the card and stores it to be used for future journeys. The £1.00 will be refunded the next day, or put towards a future Tap2Go journey, whichever is sooner.
Can I see my journey history and charge information?
Yes, your journey history and charges will appear in the Tap2Go section of your SWR account. Under the tab ‘Travel History’ you can view your journeys and transactions by day, week or month for the previous 12 month period.
If we are unable to take payment from your registered payment card, we will notify you by email and ask you to update your details. We will try to charge your card again later, on more than one occasion. It is important that you update your account if you receive a new credit or debit card, failure to do so could lead to your account being blocked.
No, Tap2Go is only available on SWR services for travel to/from stations shown on our Tap2Go map. It cannot be used on any TfL services or on services provided by any operator other than SWR.
Can I travel to other stations in London with Tap2Go?
Tap2Go can only be used to travel to/from stations operated by SWR inside London. You can only travel as far as London Waterloo, you cannot travel to other London Terminals such as London Bridge or Charing Cross.
Once registered for Tap2Go, add the details of your Railcard, and an image of your Railcard, under the “Manage Your Railcard” section of your SWR account.
We will verify the information and approve or reject the application within 5 days. Your Tap2Go journeys will then be discounted from the date of approval. Don’t forget to always carry your Railcard with you.
What should I do if there is service disruption and need to travel with a different operator?
In the event that due to service disruption, you need to travel with a different operator or you need to take an alternative form of transport (such as a bus or tube) you should not use Tap2Go and instead buy a ticket. Remember if you have touched in, if you touch out again within 15 minutes then no charge will be made to your Tap2Go account.
No, your Tap2Go account is linked to a credit or debit card which will be billed after you travel and we’ve calculated the cost of your journey. We therefore bill your account back to £0.00. If you wish to add credit to your account, you are able to do so through your online account but it is not a requirement.
You’ll need to sign into My Account and select Tap2Go from the menu. Click the option to “Close account”, tick the box to confirm you wish to close your Tap2Go account and then submit.
It takes over 10 business days to close and Tap2Go will stop working on your smartcard.
It can take up to 7 days to finalise the value of your ticket when using Tap2Go as it’s based on your actual travel. You should claim Delay Repay in the usual way, however the value of the compensation payment cannot be completed until the ticket value is finalised.
If you are opted into Auto Delay Repay, when the claim is triggered you will receive an email from us explaining that we believe you have been delayed and are therefore entitled to compensation. You will be invited to review and complete your claim, however the value of compensation will not be known until the ticket value is finalised as it’s based on your actual travel.
