"Leap" into the unknown: The feedback thread

bg07

Mario95 wrote: »

Does it let you to use your phone as leap card, or is it just a simple top up app?

No at the moment it can only be used to purchase credit or load tickets that have already been purchased.

Victor

Mario95 wrote: »

Does it let you to use your phone as leap card, or is it just a simple top up app?

At this time, it will only allow you charge your Leap Card. It doesn't become a 'Leap device'. although I have seen someone keep their ticket in their phone case! One restriction of course would be battery charge.

AngryLips

bg07 wrote: »

Are you sure that's not because there is a setting elsewhere on your phone disabling the app from turning on NFC?

bk

bg07 wrote: »

I tried it as part of the trial. Straight forward functionality with a simple design.

Will it work with any Leap card or just one you have registered with them?

For instance, can you use the app to top up a family or friends card?

Alun

Victor wrote: »

One restriction of course would be battery charge.

Is there any reason why the NFC chip in a phone would not work the same way as it would in a passive device like a leap card?

bk

Alun wrote: »

Is there any reason why the NFC chip in a phone would not work the same way as it would in a passive device like a leap card?

Well NFC (as used in smartphones) and RFID (as used in a leap card) while they might seem the same, behind the scenes they actually work in different ways.

The RFID chip in the leap card is actually "powered" by the magnetic field of the card reader.

NFC on the other hand, while it can mimic a RFID card and interact with RFID readers (thus Apple Pay, etc.), can actually do far more, including writing to RFID cards and mimicking multiple RFID cards, etc. However the downside of these extra abilities is that it uses far more power then a simple rfid card and thus needs to use the battery of the phone to power it.

Edit: good graph showing the differences between RFID and NFC here:
http://blog.atlasrfidstore.com/near-field-communication-infographic/

MOH

lxflyer wrote: »

Well then don't get the auto top-up. Just top up at a shop whenever you need to.

Auto top-up is really designed for regular users.

Did you miss the bit in my previous post where I said even when I was a daily user I was nowhere near the cap?

Top up at a shop? Thank you! I never thought of that!

There's no valid reason not to off a choice of a lower trigger/topup amount for auto topup. Except of course DB wouldn't have as much of their customers' cash sitting around as a free loan.

LXFlyer

MOH wrote: »

Did you miss the bit in my previous post where I said even when I was a daily user I was nowhere near the cap?

Top up at a shop? Thank you! I never thought of that!

There's no valid reason not to off a choice of a lower trigger/topup amount for auto topup. Except of course DB wouldn't have as much of their customers' cash sitting around as a free loan.

The reason is to avoid people having to top up twice within a five day period which the banks won't allow.


Just because you typically never reached the cap doesn't mean that you at some stage might, and thus require a second top-up which in the case of using lower top-up amounts would fail.

markpb

lxflyer wrote: »

The reason is to avoid people having to top up twice within a five day period which the banks won't allow.

Only because their poor choice of payment method. Direct debits are wholly unsuited to automatic top-ups. The only reason I can imagine for chose them was to avoid chargebacks associated with credit cards but with SEPA DD, that risk is there for direct debits too.

AlekSmart

MOH wrote: »

Did you miss the bit in my previous post where I said even when I was a daily user I was nowhere near the cap?

Top up at a shop? Thank you! I never thought of that!

There's no valid reason not to off a choice of a lower trigger/topup amount for auto topup. Except of course DB wouldn't have as much of their customers' cash sitting around as a free loan.

It's worth noting that all ATU agreements and transactions are between Leapcard (NTA) and the Leapcard Customer.

Other than providing the means of debiting the card for the journey/s made,Dublin Bus,or any other operators,have no involvement with the Financial arrangements.

The relevant factual information is available through the Leapcard website...

https://www.leapcard.ie/en/PageSetting/ContentViewer.aspx?Val=pVzfQclU7kH8dijXqv4rurPvvAorQy8o29twp9RQh4vVpkRtb4bjkwrriYLqo8yBhrLHkSI9Epxj1sgIUUXvgTj3Af6hKHBPUt4m1thBS5BrXj67L%2Fyo94RuwMFLMp48ZPP60yh0cvewBSTum%2Bwg%2F5qW4mekIHa9%2FysNoOLKkJk%3D&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1#setupautotopup

Hope this is helpful...:)

bk

lxflyer wrote: »

The reason is to avoid people having to top up twice within a five day period which the banks won't allow.

Just because you typically never reached the cap doesn't mean that you at some stage might, and thus require a second top-up which in the case of using lower top-up amounts would fail.

Which just goes to show how poorly setup some parts of Leap are.

Just look at Revolut and how they can allow you to topup via debit card for free and offer transaction free foreign exchange.

It is absolutely possible to negotiate better rates with the banks and an organisation with the amount of transactions as leap should be getting extremely favourable rates from banks. There really is no excuse for it.

MOH

lxflyer wrote: »

The reason is to avoid people having to top up twice within a five day period which the banks won't allow.


Just because you typically never reached the cap doesn't mean that you at some stage might, and thus require a second top-up which in the case of using lower top-up amounts would fail.

I'm very much aware of that.
So instead of giving people the option of choosing a lower trigger/topup amount, which might fail and mean they have to go to a shop 10% of the time, you think it's better they have to go to a shop 100% of the time?

AlekSmart wrote: »

It's worth noting that all ATU agreements and transactions are between Leapcard (NTA) and the Leapcard Customer.

Sorry, I do know that, should have said NTA instead of DB. Thanks for the correction. Same point still applies though, lower trigger/topup means lower interest free loan.

Slippin Jimmy

Princess Peach wrote:

I've had a graduate account for three years already

Does anyone know when the new leap top up app will be out? It says early 2016 but how early?

smackyB

Anyone here willing to post a copy of the app? Can use this to grab a copy of the APK: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ext.ui

plodder

lxflyer wrote: »

Well then don't get the auto top-up. Just top up at a shop whenever you need to.

Auto top-up is really designed for regular users.

Don't agree with this either. None of the points made really justify why people don't have a choice on it. There must be another reason, such as the cash flow it generates. But, it's a false economy as it only drives occasional users away. For occasional users, topping up at a shop is less convenient than using cash.

AngryLips

So I finally go around to using the app. It's really simple and straightforward. The app is totally single-purpose in that the only thing it does is add credit to your card, I know some will lament the lack of functionality but I think the fact that it is so focussed makes it a better app ...even if it would be nice to be able to add other ticket types to my card using it. Where I see this come in really handy is where you're not sure how much credit you have and when there's a bus due or something like that ...you can easily top up pretty quickly as your bus approaches. I had some connection problems related to my coverage but it handled intermittent signal issues no problem.

plodder

AngryLips wrote: »

So I finally go around to using the app. It's really simple and straightforward. The app is totally single-purpose in that the only thing it does is add credit to your card, I know some will lament the lack of functionality but I think the fact that it is so focussed makes it a better app ...even if it would be nice to be able to add other ticket types to my card using it. Where I see this come in really handy is where you're not sure how much credit you have and when there's a bus due or something like that ...you can easily top up pretty quickly as your bus approaches. I had some connection problems related to my coverage but it handled intermittent signal issues no problem.

So, does it use NFC to update the card? That is clever if true and will be a very useful alternative to auto-topup.

Slippin Jimmy

I got an invite to join the beta app. Just waiting on downloading instructions now.

Alun

Slippin Jimmy wrote: »

I got an invite to join the beta app. Just waiting on downloading instructions now.

I just got one too.

Slippin Jimmy

Did they send you the link?

Alun

Slippin Jimmy wrote: »

Did they send you the link?

Not yet, no

plodder

I just checked my phone and it can see the "Dublin Leap Card" application on my leapcard. So, I wouldn't mind trying it out as well. I imagine they are being cautious about it though given the potential security issues with this capability.

Alun

Just got the email now. Be aware that they send it to the registered Google Play account, not the account they sent the original invite to, which in my case are different.

Alun

AngryLips wrote: »

Where I see this come in really handy is where you're not sure how much credit you have and when there's a bus due or something like that ...you can easily top up pretty quickly as your bus approaches.

Have just downloaded the app, and I'd have to disagree with the "pretty quickly" bit.

I had imagined you'd be able to register a credit/debit card and then be able to top up by entering a password, but not only do you have to enter all the card details by hand, but also have to deal with the abomination that is "Verified by Visa". Hardly conducive to a quick top-up standing on a wet, windy bus-stop an a dark evening in December IMO.

It's handy enough to do at home though, and saves a trip to a PayZone agent.

Slippin Jimmy

Alun wrote: »

Just got the email now. Be aware that they send it to the registered Google Play account, not the account they sent the original invite to, which in my case are different.

I haven't got a reply despite sending my google play details back to them. I'll guess it will be tomorrow .

Victor

Slippin Jimmy wrote: »

Does anyone know when the new leap top up app will be out? It says early 2016 but how early?

That's a "how long is a piece of strong?" question. It will really depend on how well things go with the user trial and any background issues that they are already aware of.

AngryLips

Victor wrote: »

That's a "how long is a piece of strong?" question. It will really depend on how well things go with the user trial and any background issues that they are already aware of.

I think they are already at an advanced stage with trials because they are not looking for ongoing user feedback as part of this trial, all they will do is send a short survey at the end of the trial period ...so it seems to bulk of their user acceptance testing is done

bk

Got the email, but when you click on the link in the email, Google Play says the app isn't found!

devnull

bk wrote: »

Got the email, but when you click on the link in the email, Google Play says the app isn't found!

Make sure you are logged into Google Play with the same account that the email was sent to.

bk

devnull wrote: »

Make sure you are logged into Google Play with the same account that the email was sent to.

It is, still didn't work!