Sydney commuters have been overcharged more than a quarter of a million dollars in just 12 weeks by tapping on to the city’s public transport network with their credit cards or smartphones.

A fault to the government's new contactless payment method resulted in more than $266,000 having to be refunded to commuters from the last quarter of 2019, Transport for NSW confirmed to the Herald.

Transport for NSW have blamed the thousands of incorrect charges on "minor issues" experienced by one of its tech partners. Credit:Michele Mossop

The payment bungle was attributed to “minor issues” experienced by the government’s technology partners, with TfNSW insisting the problem had been completely corrected.

The payback represented only 0.6 of a per cent of the $46,000,000 in contactless payments collected over the 12 weeks, according to the department.