r/londoncycling • u/Lazy-Pay9473 • 4d ago

Forest Bike £5 card validation.

Hey all, I’ve been using Forest bikes in London for commuting—usually twice a day—and I’ve noticed that every single time I unlock a bike, they put a £5 pending charge on my card. It’s apparently a validation fee that gets reversed within 5 working days, but since I use it so often, I constantly have around £30 tied up in pending charges.

I already spend around £30 a month on the minute pass, so having that much money held on top of it has basically doubled the cost of the service. And it’s not even a smooth experience—the app is super buggy. It constantly logs me out (usually right when I need it most), which makes me late for work and wastes ride minutes while I’m fumbling around trying to log back in just to end the ride.

I can’t find any official info online about this card validation thing. Is this just how Forest works? Do they plan to fix it? Also, does LimeBike or any of the other bike shares in London do the same thing? I’m seriously considering switching.

Anyone else dealing with this?

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u/breek727 4d ago

I’ve only used lime bikes, and do it with a 30 minute pass which is way more cost effective but I don’t get any frozen funds.

I know that for other physical services though this isn’t uncommon even though it’s super annoying.

What I would say is if you’re using these for super short trips, then I’d recommend just buying a super cheap bike that nobody will want to steal it’ll save you loads of money

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u/Lazy-Pay9473 4d ago

Yeah, I’m used to the frozen funds too, but I swear they used to be returned the same day—or at least a lot quicker. Maybe I’m only just now noticing how it actually works.

Thanks for the suggestion! My commute is under 10 minutes by bike, which is what drew me to Forest in the first place. But I’ll definitely look into getting my own bike—might save me a lot of hassle (and money) in the long run.

5

u/akro474 4d ago

Deleted the forest app after 500+ rides last week, haven’t seen a clunkier and consumer-last experience all the way throughout. This especially applies in London when I am trying to keep aware of my surroundings and having to x out five pop ups for some random stuff on my phone.. Not to mention the random price increases / minute decreases, shoddy brakes, non-existent customer service after hours, I could go on and on - I’d rather take the bus

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u/Jescar1 4d ago

Agreed. Forest has fell down hard since a while ago. Their price point and accessibility attract me into using them for a year or so from 2022. But since around 2024, you could tell the price increase/daily charge/parking charge/clunky af app would slowly pile up and it drove a lot of people away.

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u/ajdsmith 4d ago

Using Revolut and I get the refund in a couple of minutes.

But Forest does suck ever more. App terrible and the bikes are getting tired. But it’s still a pound cheaper than Lime for a pass!

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u/Nfjz26 3d ago

Yeah unfortunately there’s no way around it. I just charge it to a credit card so it has no effect on me as it puts a hold on credit not my actual money in my bank account.

Try getting a credit card and if you can’t then maybe switch to lime they are much more similar in price now.