Switching guide
Locked out of your TfL Auto Pay account? How to recover it
Most people touch their TfL account once a year — usually in a hurry, the day a charge is due. By then the password is long forgotten. Here's the recovery route that works, and the trap to avoid.
Before you cancel anything
If a charge is due TODAY, don't gamble the deadline on account recovery — pay the one-off charge first at tfl.gov.uk (no login needed), then recover the account calmly. A £180 PCN costs more than any amount of admin.
Step by step, on the Transport for London website
- 1Go to tfl.gov.uk → Pay to drive in London → sign in → 'Forgotten your password?'.
- 2The email reset works only if you still control the address you registered with — check spam, and any old addresses you might have used.
- 3If the flow asks security questions you set years ago and can't answer, stop — repeated failed attempts can lock the account for 30 minutes at a time.
- 4Once you're in, update the email, password and card details in one sitting so next year's you isn't back here.
Portal: tfl.gov.uk → Auto Pay
The fastest route in practice
Skip the password-reset maze: call TfL on 0343 222 2222 (Mon–Sat 06:00–midnight) and pass telephone security instead — name, address, vehicle details. In practice this is far faster than the online recovery when the security questions defeat you.
☎ Transport for London: 0343 222 2222 (Mon–Sat, 06:00–midnight)
Common questions
I can't access the email address on the account at all — is it lost?
No — the phone route exists exactly for this. Call, pass telephone security, and ask them to update the contact email. You don't need the old inbox.
Will my Auto Pay have kept paying while I was locked out?
Yes — Auto Pay charges your card or Direct Debit regardless of whether you can sign in. Being locked out doesn't create PCNs; a failed payment method does. That's the thing to check once you're back in.
How do I avoid this next year?
This is precisely why Snaptoll exists: register your vehicle once with us and the Congestion Charge, ULEZ, tunnels — and a dozen other schemes — are paid automatically from one account you actually use. No annual password archaeology before a deadline.
Related: How to cancel TfL Auto Pay (or move a vehicle off it)
Moving because you want everything in one place?
Snaptoll covers Congestion Charge, ULEZ and the Blackwall & Silvertown tunnel charges — plus every other major UK toll and airport drop-off — from one account, and checks daily that your cover is really in place.
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