London Taxi

[swimjimmom]

Does anyone know if you can pay for a taxi in London using a credit card? We will be arriving at Heathrow Airport and want to get a taxi into London to our hotel.

[English_in_Spain]

Some do but not all. There is often an indication on the cab if they do but I would recommend checking with the driver before you start off.

 

You may be charged extra for paying by card.

 

You would probably be better getting some cash from an ATM at the airport before getting a taxi. You will probably need cash for other things so you might as well get it at the airport.

 

[LondonTowner]

Most London Black cabs accept CC these days. However, instead of getting a Black Cab, which is very expensive, why don't you pre book a mini cab or private car service. It will probably work out almost half the price.

 

If you look on the London Forum on Tripadvisor there is lots of information and recommendations.

[phabric]

Does anyone know if you can pay for a taxi in London using a credit card? We will be arriving at Heathrow Airport and want to get a taxi into London to our hotel.

 

We used http://www.justairports.com car service to & from LHR to our hotel. They meet you just outside the baggage area. To get a quote, put your hotel postal code (our hotel was SW1).

[SteveH2508]

IIRC London black cabs charge a 12.5% surcharge for credit cards.

[Cotswold Eagle]

IIRC London black cabs charge a 12.5% surcharge for credit cards.

 

That's the maximum surcharge they are allowed, not all charge that much.

 

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/taxisandminicabs/taxis/taxifares/1142.aspx

 

There are some systems where you can 'hail' a cab by e.g. smartphone app and automatically pay by card with no surcharge.

[Globaliser]

IIRC London black cabs charge a 12.5% surcharge for credit cards.

That's the maximum surcharge they are allowed, not all charge that much.

Many charge only 10%.

[cruisingmimi]

We just were in London pre-cruise late November and I booked the following airport transfer from LHR to our hotel: http://www.247airporttransfer.co.uk/

 

I booked them online and we paid cash when we got to our hotel. You can also pay w/ a credit card on the website. The taxi driver does not take credit cards on the day of your trip. I can highly recommend this company, they were waiting for us as we exited the airport. You would probably be able to use a smaller vehicle than we did as there were 3 of us w/ lots of luggage. You can get the amount of the fare by putting in your hotel destination. Our hotel was 45 min. drive from LHR so it was nice to sit back and enjoy the drive after a long overnight plane ride. This company was the most reasonable of all the ones I got prices from. They are a licensed private car hire service w/ individually owned taxis. We had a large van as we had more luggage and pad 40£ for the trip, well worth it! A smaller vehicle would have been 30£ but we wouldn't have been able to fit all our luggage in.

 

The driver will monitor your flight and know if it is late arriving (ours was). When you book the transfer the website will ask you what time you want to be picked up. I had added an extra hour's arrival time for customs, etc. The driver will arrive approx. 30 min. after your flight arrival so you have time to clear customs, pick up your luggage, etc. You will still have an extra 30 min. beyond this wait time for free.

 

We did use the black taxis for other trips throughout London and some of them did have the credit card machines in the back seat, however, I did not pay attention to the terms of use. The outside of the taxi will note that they accept credit cards.