Where contactless is the default

Contactless is not a convenience add-on in London; it is how most people pay for most things. Card payments made up 64% of all UK transactions in 2024, and cash made up just 9%, according to UK Finance's payment markets data — the first year cash was not the second most-used method. That shift shows up everywhere a tourist actually spends money: supermarkets, chain cafes, pubs, museum shops, and every form of public transport.

Apple Pay and Google Pay work at the same terminals as physical contactless cards, and many visitors find it faster to tap a phone or watch than to dig out a wallet. A phone or watch set up with a foreign-issued card behaves exactly like the physical card behind it for fees and currency conversion, so nothing changes there.

Does a foreign card work on the transport network

A bank-issued contactless card from almost any country works directly at Tube, DLR, Overground, Elizabeth line, and National Rail gates, and on buses and trams, using the same pay-as-you-go system as a UK card — there is no registration step and no need for a UK bank account. Transport for London's own guidance describes contactless pay-as-you-go as open to any contactless-enabled bank card or device, capped daily and weekly automatically as you travel; the article on tube and bus fares on a bank card covers how that capping works.

One rule matters for groups: each traveller needs their own card or device, because the system tracks journeys and applies caps per card, not per person carrying it. If two people tap in on one card, the system will read that as one traveller making two overlapping journeys and can charge incomplete-journey or maximum fares.

Card fees and dynamic currency conversion

TfL does not add a surcharge for using contactless, and by law every London black cab must have a working card reader and accept contactless with no card surcharge, confirmed on TfL's taxi fares page. Any extra cost on a foreign card comes from your own bank, not from the UK merchant: many card issuers apply a foreign-transaction fee, typically a percentage of each purchase, so check your card's terms before you land rather than after your statement arrives.

A separate cost to watch for is dynamic currency conversion (DCC), where a card terminal offers to charge you in your home currency instead of GBP. The Post Office's guide to avoiding DCC explains that the merchant's bank sets its own exchange rate for this conversion, which is usually worse than the rate your own card issuer would apply.

Where cash still turns up

Cash has not disappeared from London, it has retreated to specific pockets. Street markets and small independent stalls — think Borough Market's smaller traders or a car-boot-style stand — sometimes prefer cash or charge a minimum for card use, though this varies stall to stall and changes often. Some older black cabs and a portion of unlicensed or informal transactions still assume cash, though every licensed taxi and private hire vehicle must accept card payment. Churches and cathedrals that ask for a donation, rather than charging an entry fee, commonly only take cash at the collection box, even where the building itself sells tickets by card at a front desk.

A short list of situations where carrying some cash genuinely helps:

  • Market stalls and street food vendors, some of which are cash-only or have a card minimum.
  • Church and cathedral donation boxes, where a card reader is rare even if ticketed areas take cards.
  • Tipping in cash, which some service staff prefer over a card tip split through a point-of-sale system (see VoyageWindow's separate guide to tipping).
  • A card failure backup, since even reliable networks occasionally decline a foreign card for no clear reason.
  • Small change for on-street parking meters that have not converted fully to app or card payment.

How much cash to actually carry

There is no official recommended amount, so treat this as a practical range rather than a rule: GBP 20-40 in mixed notes and coins covers a market purchase, a donation box, and a couple of cash-preferring transactions without leaving you carrying a wallet full of unused notes. Withdrawing from a bank-branded ATM (rather than a standalone "convenience" ATM that often charges a withdrawal fee) and declining any DCC offer at the machine keeps the cost of that cash reasonable.

Before you rely on a single card

Carrying a second card, ideally from a different card network (Visa and Mastercard, rather than two Visa cards), protects you if one card is blocked for suspected fraud after several transport taps in quick succession — a known trigger for some banks' fraud systems. Confirm your PIN before you travel even if you plan to tap for everything, since UK terminals periodically ask for it as a security check regardless of transaction size.